


One Day, Maybe, He'll Remember His Eyes Glow

by PoisonHemloc



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: (not that Wolf recognizes thats what it is), Angst, Animal Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Inosuke's Mother and Gensai Nogami are both also making appearences, one gamefowl harmed in the making of this, prequel fic, some discussion of child abuse, sorry Kuro, tags will be updated with each chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 41,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25905169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonHemloc/pseuds/PoisonHemloc
Summary: "That was... three years ago..." But Wolf locked in a well for three years is boring, so what happened instead?(This is from Wolf taking up guarding Kuro at the Hirata Estates to right before the start of the game)
Comments: 77
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still alive just. Stuff happens. This'll be a 17 chapter fic unless I decide to add in another scene near the end but I'm as happy as I think I will be for now.
> 
> Relevant stuff: I don't think Wolf had been guarding Kuro for very long when the estates were attacked due to some of their dialogue, so no, this isn't from Kuro-is-a-baby to Wolf waking up in the well.

“Owl. Thank you for coming.” The Hiratas had a small estate, and Owl knew they were not rich by any stretch of the imagination, and yet something in his gut told him he had to answer the request to meet. It was the rumors swirling around the noble family; their son had some special power. It was his gut feeling, the suspicion that the opportunity he had always been looking for might have just asked for an audience.

“Lord Hirata. I must extend my thanks for the esteemed invite to a lowly shinobi like myself.” He bowed from his kneeling position. “Whatever you desire, I can do my best to fulfill.” 

“Good. I have a need for a good shinobi.” Lord Tatsuo Hirata was tall like his uncle Isshin Ashina; when standing, he and Owl could have seen eye to eye. “I wish to hire your services to protect my son, Kuro.”

“Is he particularly adventurous? I know some children would do better with a shinobi following them than a samurai.”  _ Wonderful _ , Owl thought,  _ straight to what I want _ . 

“Not more than a normal child. At the risk of being rude, but I must ask your discretion on this topic; more people already know than we would like.” Lord Hirata continued after Owl bowed again and affirmed his silence. “Kuro was born with a gift called the Dragon’s Heritage. What we know is that he cannot bleed or be injured. My understanding is that there are several other things that occur with it. We have tried to stop the knowledge from getting out, but rumors are beginning to spread. If someone is desperate enough we fear they may go after him for whatever they think it promises.”

Owl knew of the Dragon’s Heritage; hadn’t he been the one to break off a branch of the Everblossom tree Takeru planted? He’d meant to investigate the lord’s immortality but had doomed Takeru to a slow death from dragonrot instead, at least until he had his samurai put him out of his misery. Takeru had died almost a decade ago; this child must have been born soon after.

This  _ was _ the opportunity he was looking for. He knew how Takeru’s sworn samurai had died, over and over again, but always came back to life until after Takeru himself died. But he could not take this job. He had plans to set in motion now, people to contact. How lucky for him, then, that he had spent the last twenty years preparing for this.

“While I would gladly protect the young lord, I fear I may be too old to keep up with a child, and too well known; there are plenty of men who might attack for the chance to face me. Instead, may I offer the service of my son? He is the best shinobi I have ever trained, but is young enough not to have enemies willing to track him down. While I may require him for certain tasks, I can ensure that if he is needed elsewhere I will be here until he returns.” Owl waited for the response. If the Hiratas were set on him, he would have to enlist Butterfly as a go between or use Wolf to take messages. He didn’t like the idea of his son helping that directly; Wolf could be very single minded, but occasionally showed an unfortunate flash of inquisitiveness and compassion that could jeopardize the plan. It would probably work, but it would be easier to leave him here from the beginning and let him focus on the young lord, not Owl’s scheming.

“If you believe that is best, we would gladly have your son as protector for Kuro.” Owl breathed a silent sigh of relief. That would make life much easier. “How soon can you bring him here?”

“Within two days, my lord. And I will, of course, alert you first if I have need of him. But, may I ask, my lord, why a shinobi as a guard? Why not a samurai?” It sounded like an innocent question, a question anyone would ask in this situation. Hirata would not hear the hidden lure for information. 

“There is a samurai guarding him currently, one of the Nogami family, and he will continue to watch over Kuro during the day. But one man cannot be on guard constantly and we are worried that a kidnapper or thief would steal in during the night and take him, and a shinobi would be better protection for that.” Lord Hirata gave a small chuckle. “It’s not like an entire raiding party would descend on the estates after a rumor that the lord’s son might be immortal.” 

“No, my lord, of course not. I will return in two days with my son, Wolf.”

“Wolf! I have a new task for you.” Owl always got straight to the point with any change to Wolf’s training. Not that training was really what he did, now; sparring to keep his and Owl’s skills sharp kept most of their days full unless Owl sent him on a small errand or some task. Generally it was just something Owl himself did not want to do; someone needed to be killed in a town that was annoying to get to, materials or items needed to be retrieved, some noble needed a guard for a few days until Owl had killed an enemy. Wolf expected this to be more of the same.

“The Hirata clan requires a shinobi to guard the lord’s son for the foreseeable future. We agreed you would be the best fit. I am too old for the child to fully trust me.” 

“Of course, sir. Child?” A longer assignment, then, but a welcome change.

“Yes. Fairly serious by all accounts but likes to visit with the villages around the estates and play with other children. There is a samurai who will also be protecting him but that will not be an excuse to slack off.” Owl leaned closer to his kneeling son and lowered his voice. “The child cannot be injured by normal means and is rumored to have immortality. His parents are worried that he will be kidnapped by someone testing that. Your job is to ensure that does not happen.” A  _ much _ longer assignment. Wolf felt a thrill of excitement he squashed immediately. This was like the previous jobs, just longer.

Owl straightened back to his full height. “You have five minutes to gather what you need and then we leave.” Wolf nodded and hurried to his room, quite a glorified term for a section of Owl’s quarters that had a few threadbare curtains strung around it. Short as he was, he could touch both curtains and the wall while laying on the wooden floor. The final wall only had a small chest- which he could also touch laying down- pressed against the wall. From this chest he pulled out the spare sharpening stone, the extra rope for his grappling hook- the hook he carried already; this forested area practically required it- and, as the only item that was not completely essential, the small Buddha statue Owl had given him, three nights after Owl brought him here. After a moment’s consideration Wolf grabbed the small sewing kit Butterfly had taught him how to use and closed the chest, now empty except for a few scraps of cloth used to patch holes. 

He ran back outside the main building to Owl’s loud voice berating him for taking longer than he needed. Wolf dropped into a kneel, apologizing, but Owl had already turned and was taking the main path out of the compound. 

“Keep up! We need to be at Hirata before sunset.”

It was only an hour before sunset when the two shinobi entered the main estates. Kuro looked up at his father as they stood in front of the large window in the main hall. 

“Owl is the taller shinobi, not many people have a braid as long as his. The other man must be his son, who will be your shinobi.” Tatsuo looked down at his young son and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll get along fine once you get used to him. Owl said he’s a little quiet, but you could get a stone to talk back.” Kuro did not share his tranquility. 

“Father, why do I need two guards? I have Inosuke already. Two people watching me is a lot, especially when you and Mother don’t have anyone.”

“Your mother and I are normal people blessed with you.” Tatsuo had answered variations of this question multiple times since he brought up hiring a shinobi to guard Kuro. “We want to be sure you stay safe and the best way to do that is to have a shinobi as well as a samurai guarding you.”

“This is just because I can’t bleed, right?” Kuro stared up at him; he had obvious white streaks in his hair, the only outward sign he was different from anyone else. Tatsuo had asked his uncle Isshin for the books he had on the Dragon’s Heritage but had not received any of them yet, and was hoping this was normal for Kuro. He knew his understanding of the heritage was severely limited, but he also believed his son deserved to know what he had been born with.

“It’s part of that, Kuro. You have Dragon’s blood; like a dragon, then, you cannot die easily, and you can give that to someone if you choose to. But we don’t know how it works, or for how long, or anything else about it. That’s why I asked your Great-Uncle Isshin for his books, so we could learn more.” Tatsuo knew he probably should not have gone that in depth, but Kuro had had Inosuke following him around since he was five and now would have a stranger following him around possibly for the rest of his life. He deserved to know as much as his father did, even though it was barely nothing. “Inosuke is a good guard for you, but we felt it was better to have a ninja to deter other ninja.” Kuro nodded, still frowning; he may not have understood everything but he got enough of the explanation. Tatsuo chose not to mention that Owl had struck him as incredibly shifty; he hoped the man’s son would be better, but he had no other options for shinobi; the two Isshin had employed were apparently both out of commission now. He would have to hope this one was better than the few he had employed for various jobs around the estates in the past.

“Lord Tatsuo, the shinobi Owl and his son Wolf have arrived and are awaiting you in the main reception hall.” A bowing servant had entered the room quietly as they talked. Tatsuo nodded to the man and squelched his own worries.

“We will be right there. Come, Kuro, let us meet your shinobi.”

“Listen Wolf, you must never forget the Shinobi Code. As your father, my word is absolute. Your master’s is a close second. As of today, he is your master. Defend him with your life. If he is taken, bring him back at any cost. You understand me, don’t you Wolf…” Kuro heard Owl talking to his son, then leaving. His father had offered a room to Owl for the night but the older man had declined and said he would leave after making sure his son was prepared. 

Kuro thought about their meeting as he prepared to sleep. His father had given him a plain sword to present to the shinobi and told him what to say. The new shinobi, his shinobi, hadn’t needed any prompting. He was a much shorter man than his father Owl, who could look Kuro’s father in the eyes. He had much shorter hair too, though Kuro had never seen someone with hair as long as Owl’s. He had a scar over his left eye, running from almost his hairline to his jaw. Kuro wondered how he got it. Owl had had a large scar too, running from above his right eye to his left jawbone, but that looked more like one of the Hirata samurai’s scars than his shinobi’s did. 

His shinobi had been kneeling the entire time Owl had been introducing him. Even kneeling he was taller than Kuro, but everyone was. He’d followed Kuro to his room silently, inspected the room as Kuro pulled his sleeping pallet out, then kneeled again to ask for permission to use one of the small windows to get onto the roof to scope out the outside. Currently he was still on the roof somewhere; despite knowing he was supposed to keep it closed, Kuro had left the window open slightly anyway in the warm early summer night. 

Kuro wondered how stealthy this shinobi could be, wearing a dull orange haori, but his father seemed happy so he couldn’t complain. The sun had fully set and the room was quickly getting dark; Kuro curled up on his pallet and fell asleep.

So this was Hirata. Wolf pulled himself up onto the roof and knelt there, listening to the child that was now his master settle onto a sleeping pallet and eventually fall asleep. Lord Kuro had smiled at him while he was swearing fealty, showing off several teeth in various stages of growing in or almost falling out. He had a few streaks of white through his hair as well, a strange sign of age contrasted with the few adult teeth. Wolf shook his head; it didn’t matter what his new lord looked like, he had a job to do now. 

Owl had given Wolf a few final instructions to go with the list he had dictated as they traveled, and seemingly had left; Wolf doubted he was truly gone. 

He could explore the estates, checking the lay of the land and finding potential routes in for invaders, but he had a feeling Owl would be waiting for him to abandon his charge and would yell at him when he returned from scouting. Equally possible, Owl would be hiding somewhere around the estate and would find and yell at him for not searching thoroughly for invaders. 

Wolf looked towards the barely open window and made a decision. He could check around the manor proper, and return to the rooftop to ensure Lord Kuro was safe frequently; the rest of the estates would have to wait. He hoped the samurai guarding Kuro was good at his job, because despite his father’s warning he wanted to take advantage of the man to look around the retainer’s buildings below the manor proper.

Dilemma solved, Wolf carefully descended from the rooftop and began prowling around the buildings. A few areas still had servants working, and he paused in the shadows to memorize faces before moving on. The estates were not very large but that meant he could take his time, returning to his rooftop often to check on Lord Kuro. He got to the bridge crossing the river and down the path, combing the bamboo on either side, by an hour or so before sunrise and decided to return until Kuro rose. He saw a ledge to the right of the bridge as he walked back across, down almost at the river, but he had been out here longer than he wanted already; he would need to explore it tomorrow. Wolf returned to the rooftop to wait for the sun to rise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the samurai who was already protecting Kuro

Shortly after the sun rose, Kuro woke up and stretched and began preparing for the day, and then jumped when a polite tap came from his slightly open window. It took him a moment to remember the events of the day before and realize the shinobi-his shinobi- was outside. He hurried over and opened the window fully, letting the man slide inside and kneel. 

“Oh...W-Wolf? Were you outside all night?” It was hard to tell if he was tired or not, but Kuro couldn’t imagine someone being up all night without being tired. 

“Of course, my lord. I was keeping watch.” Before Kuro could ask when he would sleep Inosuke arrived, unlocking the door and frowning for a moment to see an unknown shinobi in his master’s quarters. 

“You must be Wolf. Lord Tatsuo said you arrived yesterday. I am Inosuke Nogami, the samurai assigned to Lord Kuro. I can sufficiently guard him in the daytime.” And with that the samurai turned to Kuro as though he was trying to shut Wolf out of the conversation. “Your tutors will be here soon, but Lady Asami is having breakfast near the pond and would like you to join her.” Kuro nodded and set off, Inosuke following behind. 

Wolf rubbed at the old scars on his right fingers, thinking. The samurai did not seem willing to be friendly, but that was nothing new; though making enemies here would just make his life harder, Wolf could do little about someone who had already decided to be an enemy. It would probably be easier if he kept himself out of Inosuke’s sight to watch Kuro. 

He climbed back out onto the roof and made his way to a position overlooking the pond in the middle of the manor. Kuro walked out of the main doors and headed towards a tall woman seated by the pond’s edge as Wolf watched; Kuro looked around as he entered the open area, and on a whim Wolf waved slightly when the boy seemed to be looking towards him. The young lord smiled and continued walking towards his mother while Inosuke remained oblivious. Even with his good hearing, Wolf was too far away to make out the conversation but he remained in position on the rooftop, scanning the area, until Kuro and Lady Asami both rose and headed towards the buildings on the far side of the pond. A handful of other children were already heading inside. Wolf knew he would not be able to jump the distance and debated for a moment grappling across rather than jumping down, but decided against it as his lord turned to talk with Inosuke before following his mother inside.

“Lessons are only for a few hours today before we go down to Kensato Village- hello Wolf- so I will meet you here by noon.” Kuro turned and walked into the building with the other children as though Inosuke had not jumped, armor clacking, when Wolf leapt down from the rooftop and walked up noiselessly behind him. The samurai turned to face the shinobi, and Wolf expected more rudeness; instead he received a neutral face and a semi-apology, which had not happened before.

“I apologize for my brisk behavior this morning. I have been guarding Lord Kuro since he was very young and was not prepared for a rogue shinobi to join me.” And that was it. It was more than Wolf had expected, anyway. He acknowledged it with a slight nod before returning to business.

“Is it safe to assume you have checked his tutors? We know who they are, where they travel from, who their families are?” 

“Of course! Most of them live in the estates already. Actually, all of them do right now; every other year a traveling tutor will join them, but no one new came this spring. The other children entering with him are the children of retainers.”

Wolf nodded and looked around the area. He would like to be on the roof or up a tree, somewhere with a good vantage point where he could wait for Kuro to finish the day’s lessons. He could climb a tree or wall quickly without the grappling hook but judging by Owl’s reaction Wolf’s normal approach when he could neither jump to the roof nor use his grapple would probably be frowned upon. Wolf stopped his train of thought as Kuro’s words replayed in his head.

“Kensato Village? The village on the other side of the lake?”

“Yes. The Hiratas visit it every other week or so. Most of their goods come from that village and the two that are a full day’s travel. Lord Kuro does not visit the other two, therefore neither shall we.” 

The sun was almost in the center of the sky by the time Kuro was finished with lessons. Wolf followed the young lord and his samurai as they joined the group preparing to travel to the village. Lord Tatsuo was present; Lady Asami had decided to remain at the estates for the afternoon. Wolf decided to walk with the group rather than taking the rooftops; this was the way he and Owl had come the day before but he would need to look around more that evening after they returned. He had not been through the servants’ quarters at the base of the hill of the Hirata estate that night, and while he did not anticipate having to travel through the area, he needed to learn the layout in case the kidnappers he was hired to defend against retreated there. 

It only took forty minutes to reach the village on foot. Lord Tatsuo only had business with several merchants but apparently knew everyone in the village and kept stopping to greet people. Kuro followed at his father’s side; despite the small olive branch earlier, Inosuke seemed to want to make it clear to Wolf that  _ he _ was the one in charge of the young lord’s safety, not some rogue shinobi, and remained close enough that Kuro turned to see why he almost had a retainer running into him several times when Tatsuo stopped suddenly. 

Wolf had no desire to posture against the samurai. He wanted to climb something; as the shortest member of the party barring his lord, it was difficult to see any potential threats. There were plenty of trees all around the village that he had seen passing through, but climbing onto any one of them would put him too far away to hear what was happening and too far to react to threats. Climbing onto a roof would pose an issue if his foot went through somewhere, which he expected it would; while the roofs looks strong, likely due to Hirata’s apparent reputation as someone who cared for the peasants under him, Wolf doubted they were really made with as much care as they appeared to be. 

He decided to explore the village, while he was here; if Inosuke was going to make a big show of guarding Lord Kuro better than a shinobi, he was welcome to. Wolf needed to scope this area for possible threats and problems, and this was a good opportunity. Several of the servants lived in this village as well, people with larger families than the close quarters at the base of the estates were designed to accommodate, and he could get an idea of who they were while he was here. 

It was a decent collection of houses; they probably covered the same amount of land as the estates did. Wolf did his best to stay out of people’s sight without actually sneaking around; as an unknown shinobi he was likely to be accused of theft if someone got nervous. There were a handful of trails that led into the forest surrounding the village that all looked well used, but nothing that made him worried.

Except the gamefowl. Butterfly had kept several smaller ones as an alarm system and occasionally as meat. These came up to his shoulders and were just as aggressive as hers had been. He gave them a wide berth; he had scars on his legs from hers and they had only been as tall as his hips. These had longer claws, and despite the danger, being wounded by one was a source of mockery according to several of his teachers. He followed several of the trails a short ways rather than stay near them, but kept returning to the village proper to check on the party. 

Inosuke frowned every time he returned until he had judged it dark enough to remain with the group. The night had never bothered him, not with his night vision, but he knew most people couldn’t see in the dark. He realized as a sevant began lighting torches for them to see their way back that he would have to stay with the group going back, as well; Owl had not forbidden him from showing or telling anyone that his eyes glowed when it was dark, but had strongly hinted it would be a bad idea. If he stayed near the torch light he wouldn’t be able to see as far, but his eyes would not glow. 

Kuro was yawning by the time Lord Tatsuo had finished his discussions and seemingly greeted the entire village. He had stayed by his father’s side the entire afternoon rather than go play with the village children his age. Wolf did not understand the pitying look Inosuke had given his lord; while he was not entirely sure if he had still been on his own when he was Kuro’s age or if Owl had adopted him at that point, he had not been playing with other children, either, and as far as he knew it was normal. He followed the lords quietly as they began the trek back to Hirata Estate, and listened as the two talked. 

“If you don’t show loyalty to your people they will not show loyalty to you; but people are not unfeeling dolls to play with. If you do not truly have loyalty- if you only pay lip service to loyalty, to your people, and are not with them when needed- they will know. You are the lord of this province and must act as such, yes, even though you are young. Your mother and I are in charge of this part of the land, but one day it will be you who is in charge, and if the people here already know you as someone to trust, the transition will be easier.” This was presumably how nobles talked to each other; Wolf had similar one sided discussions with his father about the Iron Code. He watched the forest as they walked, Inosuke finally several feet back from Kuro, the other retainers carrying small goods they had come to the village for. Tatsuo moved suddenly, causing both Wolf and Inosuke to focus on him, only for him to straighten up carrying his son; Kuro had had a long day and had been practically falling asleep on his feet as his father talked, and the lord had finally gotten the hint to stop his loyalty monologue and carry his son the rest of the way back.

Wolf did not go inside the large building with the Hiratas and a few other retainers, nodding at Inosuke following his lord, currently sleeping in his father’s arms. Instead Wolf grappled up to Kuro’s window, still slightly ajar from the morning, and ducked inside, on guard for anyone waiting in the room. It only took a few moments to ascertain that the room was empty, though someone had come by during the day; probably a servant, tidying the room, but Wolf still made sure there was nothing nasty hidden away where it would hurt Lord Kuro. He paused, noticing the candles around the room were all unlit, probably a cost saving measure. He had never needed candles himself, but knew other people like his father had needed them when it was dark. If they were here, the Hiratas did not have his night vision either… 

After a moment of worried contemplation, he lit the candles present in the room for when the Hiratas arrived. He had just pulled himself onto the roof when he heard the elder Hirata walk in; he paused for a moment, wondering why the candles were burning, but he must have realized what had happened. As he made sure his sleeping son was on his pallet and sent Inosuke off to wherever he slept at night, Wolf was planning where he would explore when he heard the lord walk to the still partly open window.

“Thank you, Wolf.” It was Lord Tatsuo, and he turned and left his son’s room without waiting for an acknowledgement. Not that Wolf could have given one; right then; he was staring at the window, shocked. Thank you? For what? He had just lit some candles to make it easier to care for his lord. No one had, no one would have thanked him for that, training under Owl; at best he had gotten a nod of acknowledgement for small, helpful tasks like that; at worst, what he had worried about, it had become an expectation, that Wolf would have tea ready for a visiting teacher or light the torch along the misleading path that served to disorient and misdirect people with no business calling on Owl. Thank you?

Wolf shook his bewilderment aside. His lord was asleep; he had things to do this evening. He knew he was starting to get tired, but he would have to wait until Lord Kuro’s lessons the next morning, so he could sleep while Inosuke stood watch. Wolf leapt down from the rooftop to the next level and from there to the ground; the retainers’ quarters needed to be checked. That was past the bamboo thicket surrounding the estate, but he had covered the first half of that area. 

Wolf saw the subtle movement on a ledge beneath the bridge as he crossed it. The ledge he had decided not to check the day before. As soon as he was off the bridge and out of eyesight Wolf began running, to the other ledge that would let him get into the water quietly. He dived, swam to the new ledge, and carefully pulled himself up, sword ready; no one was there. He walked further and found an opening of a shaft cut into the rock, half hidden behind bamboo, and looked up; still nothing. 

He knew he had not imagined the movement. Someone must have climbed up. Or someone had jumped up, like he was planning to do. He pulled shuriken from his belt pouch and held them ready in one hand, Kusabimaru, the sword Kuro had given him the day before, in the other, and leapt up the shaft before landing at the top.  _ There _ , one person, large, back to him, heading to a pagoda Wolf had seen entering the estates but hadn’t known how to get there. Wolf did not stop to think before throwing the shuriken and lunging forward, but Owl easily dodged both attacks. Now that his mind caught up to the situation, Wolf sheathed his sword and knelt, but before he could begin his apology Owl had clapped him on the shoulder.

“I came back to make sure you were doing your job. I did not think you had seen me when you crossed the bridge.”

“I was trying not to alert whoever I saw, sir.” 

“Return to your duties. I’ll return when I have need of you.” Owl watched his son descend the tunnel again, ignoring the annoyance in the back of his mind in favor of the pride blossoming in his chest. It had taken time for him to find a good child to train, but Wolf had the capability to surpass him one day, seeing slight movement a hundred yards away without giving away that he was even looking. 

Owl now had to hope Wolf wouldn’t get attached to the child like he’d shown flashes of in the past. Owl had done a good job drilling the Iron Code into his head, and was fairly certain he would choose Owl if forced, but better not to have the situation arise. Wolf was probably not going to survive Owl’s plan, anyway; if the child was to give Owl immortality he would need a reason and the unfortunate death of his loyal shinobi would serve nicely. 

Wolf would need a challenge, though, he was decent with a sword. It was probably time to bring Butterfly into the plan, and eliminate a potential rival at the same time. Decisions made, Owl turned and left the estates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just because Tatsuo and Kuro are friendly doesn't mean anyone else is (but really it's just Inosuke)
> 
> Mostly due to his dialogue at Hirata I figured Inosuke had already been protecting Kuro when Wolf came along but I'm not sold on his general competency and I don't think the Hiratas were, either.
> 
> I wish I could say Wolf gets better about being thanked but honestly it happens so rarely he doesn't.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finishing laying groundwork for next week (when things pick up a little)

Wolf returned to the main path and made his way to the retainer’s quarters. He needed to focus on the job he was here for currently, not that Owl had not berated him for attacking out of turn. Owl hadn’t even said anything slightly negative; he’d practically praised Wolf, and it was. Strange. Disorienting. Everyone here seemed just a little off, Wolf realized; except for Inosuke, the handful of servants he’d briefly met and even the Lord- he hadn’t run into Lady Asami at all, just seen her from a distance- had seemed nice, friendly even. It was a drastic change from Owl’s compound.

Wolf shook his head to clear his thoughts. Check the retainers’ quarters. There were several separate housing areas for different servants and the retainers not privileged to live on the main estate grounds. One of the courtyards held gamefowl even taller than the ones Wolf had seen at the village, strutting around and clucking. These were almost as tall as he was and doubtless worse than their smaller cousins. He carefully avoided the courtyard. 

One main thoroughfare, another way up to the river through the courtyards and of course the river that ran up almost into the estate proper. It was a lot of different routes for a possible kidnapper to take, and a lot of different retreats. He was walking back an hour before dawn when he noticed a building on the other side of the river; something must have been over there.

Wolf grappled to it carefully and walked around; the building itself was closed and looked dusty, but there was a small graveyard and a path to a larger clearing here. And a tunnel. Wolf, following the tunnel, found another vertical tunnel cut into the mountainside and frowned when he found it to come out in a back area of the estates proper.  _ Another route in _ , he thought, and decided to ask if it could be secured. You would have to know it was there-it was covered and appeared to be a storage overflow from the outside- but it was easy enough for him to get in or out of. 

Wolf arrived back outside Kuro’s room shortly before the young lord woke up. This time, Kuro came to the window to look for him specifically and he got a spectacular scowl from Inosuke when the samurai entered to collect Lord Kuro. 

“Your tutors are arriving already, my lord. Breakfast is waiting downstairs, and then it is a full day of lessons.” 

“Of course, Inosuke. Wolf?” He turned back to look up at his shinobi; Inosuke had dropped the frown while Kuro was looking at him but picked it back up the instant Kuro looked away. “Today might be boring for you, Wolf. You are welcome to sit in on the lessons, if you wish.”

“Of course, my lord.” Wolf was surprised by how much he wanted to accept the offer, wanted to learn more than about fighting and weapon care, but he was still too new here; he could not begin to slack off. “Soon, perhaps, but not today.” Kuro nodded, and followed Inosuke out to breakfast. Wolf climbed back out onto the roof, stomach reminding him he hadn’t eaten since he got here, but he would have to wait a little longer. If Kuro truly was in lessons all day he might be able to ask for something from the kitchen, once he found it. If they asked for payment he would have to scavenge for something else; one of the things Owl was very clear about as they traveled here was any money given to Wolf belonged to Owl and was not to be spent, just held onto until Owl stopped by, and Owl’s orders were of utmost importance, always. Armor, weapons, and raising a growing child- even if he hadn’t grown that much- took a large amount of money, and now that Wolf could begin to repay the investment Owl was expecting it. Wolf did not know the exact amount and was merely grateful Owl had explained he only expected the actual amount, not interest. 

Wolf waited on his rooftop as Kuro emerged from the main building and made his way to the tutor’s rooms, Inosuke following him. He watched as Kuro entered and Inosuke remained on watch outside, scanning the other buildings and the rooftops. His gaze never stopped on Wolf, kneeling in the shadow of an eave, which did not inspire confidence. Wolf sighed to himself. He would like to make sure the man knew how to properly scan for enemies, but bringing up the topic would probably inspire more hostility. Regardless, if he went another day without sleeping he would be sloppy the next day. Wolf tucked himself into the corner provided by the roof, ensuring he wouldn’t fall, and let himself fall asleep.

Everything was burning. The layout of the estates had merged with Owl’s compound, or the main estate opened into Owl’s rooms now. He could hear Kuro calling for him but as fast as he ran he could never find him. A masked man in dark grey appeared with a bloody sword, about to lunge; Wolf couldn’t reach his sword in time to block.

Wolf jolted awake; once, just once, it would be nice to not have a nightmare when he fell asleep. Supposedly Owl never had them, and Lady Butterfly had mentioned the same thing. It did mean he rarely slept longer than two hours at a time though, which was useful. He rubbed at his eyes and checked the shadows on the ground; probably just an hour and a half, this time, but that would do. He silently thanked Owl for breaking him of the habit of making a sound when he woke up, knowing it would just hurt his reputation here to let out a yell for seemingly no reason in the middle of the day.

Inosuke was not in front of the tutoring building; after a moment scanning the grounds Wolf saw him walking back from a pathway around the main estate building. Wolf climbed down from his perch, making sure his clothing was as unrumpled as he could expect, and braced himself as he approached the samurai. He was expecting the man to be unwelcoming and was not disappointed.

“Shinobi. I was wondering when you’d show up again today. Lord Kuro has lessons for another few hours, it’s probably better to go back to whatever hideyhole you found until you’re needed.” In a new place where nobles said thank you and his father had not been upset about being attacked when they weren’t sparring Inosuke’s continued dislike was a balance. Several teachers Owl had found for him had been similar; Wolf had learned that if they were continuing to work with him, being friendly was not an option and neither was being antagonistic. He could stay neutral around the samurai for as long as he was here. 

Externally Wolf nodded to him rather than take the bait and walked towards the bridge connecting the main estate and the retainer’s area. If Inosuke wanted to remain on watch the entire time Lord Kuro was learning it was fine with Wolf; it meant he would not need to hover around the same building all day and could be proactive about threats instead. But first, he did need to eat. He debated for a moment hunting through the estates for the kitchen, since his nighttime reconnaissance had not found anything he thought looked like one, but decided against it. He had spent several years before Owl had found him surviving on his own and that had meant scavenging when there were no merchants nearby, or the ones that he found were uninterested in whatever he had scrounged up, usually weapons. 

He was fairly certain that he had seen gourds of some kind a short ways off the road into the estates the night before and was rewarded with several different vegetables he could stomach and as well as another he avoided if he could, since it made his face tingle unpleasantly. He put a few smaller ones into his bag, in case he didn’t get a chance to get more food for a few days. 

He knew it hadn’t been more than an hour but Inosuke gave him a look like he had been gone for an entire week when he returned. Rather than engage, Wolf grappled onto a different rooftop than the one that morning and began to watch, ignoring the samurai grumbling just loud enough Wolf was probably supposed to hear it.

It was easily another four hours before Kuro was finished with lessons for the day, tired from having to sit still and pay attention. He greeted Inosuke before looking around the rooftops for Wolf, who jumped down once he saw Kuro walk outside. Before Kuro could talk to either of them the other children streamed out and one of them grabbed his hand; Kuro laughed and waved as he ran to keep up as they ran towards the pond. Inosuke had started to follow at a walking pace and was easily outstripped by Wolf, who kept easy pace with the children as they started playing in the water. 

The pond was only got as deep as mid thigh on Wolf; on the children it was barely over their waists. He stood in the water with them as they played, watching them as they splashed around but also wondering if any of the children knew how to swim. All of them were standing to splash each other and trying inefficiently to run through the water. Wolf had been taught how to swim young enough he didn’t remember being taught, but he had gathered that it was not the most widely known skill in the area. Owl had known, the only one of his teachers to know, though Owl had always avoided water when Wolf could see him. He ignored Inosuke at the pond’s edge, arms crossed, watching them. 

It only took half an hour for the already tired children to wear themselves out playing in the summer evening before they split, Asami appearing to call Kuro inside to change before dinner. Kuro headed to change into dry clothing and the others headed back to their parents. Before Wolf could grapple up to the roof Inosuke grabbed his shoulder. 

“You are soaking wet. I’ll check his rooms since I had the sense to stay out of the water like I might have expected you to do. You’re short enough I almost mistook you for one of the children several times.”

“Does Lord Kuro know how to swim, Inosuke?” Wolf had meant it as an honest question but was interested to see how the man suddenly went pale. He decided to push a little. “Do any of the other children? Do you, for that matter? I can. And I know when someone is drowning. I would rather be close if something happens than standing on the shoreline.” Wolf knew that was not a good idea but the man’s unrelenting hostility was irritating him. At least with his teachers they had been able to act professional about it. 

Without waiting on a response Wolf ran at the wall and ran up several feet, then grabbed the rooftop before gravity figured out what he was doing. Owl got upset when he climbed like that, but the samurai was too close to use his grappling hook effectively and he did not want to be heckled for missing a throw after telling off the samurai for his overconfidence that no one would get hurt. He did stick his head inside Kuro’s room, scanning for anyone present, but was out before Inosuke hurried inside in front of Kuro to actively check the room with the damp lord waiting to change.

Wolf chose to spend that night outside Kuro’s window; he needed to know what the normal sounds from the estates were now that he knew the routes in and out. It was a moonless night, but that had never bothered him. He remained watching, crouched by the now closed window all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's count how many red flags Owl throws up, shall we?
> 
> Things pick up a but next week, I just spent a long time letting Wolf figure out his way around the estates


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally someone notices how Wolf is and goes "Hey, hold on a minute"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post multiple chapters at a time just to get to this one.

The third day was very like the second. Kuro did not have classes that went as long, so he was able to play with the other children longer. Inosuke surprisingly did not gripe at Wolf about being in the pond with the children as they splashed and cooled off in the water; Wolf noticed him frowning occasionally, but focused on making sure the children stayed safe. 

Lord and Lady Hirata appeared after an hour of the children playing. Wolf had noticed them as soon as they stepped outside, but Lord Tatsuo had gestured not to worry so Wolf had resumed watching the children. They had made it a game to try and splash him; despite himself, he was enjoying dodging them as he watched them. After another half hour watching the children playing, Lady Asami had decided she had had enough and rose, running into the water with them and Wolf. She almost immediately got splashed by several children but splashed them back, laughing; she was almost as tall as her husband and had to practically kneel to get her hands to the water.

“Asami, you’re- Hey!” Whatever Tatsuo’s protest was going to be, he ended up with a mouthful of water courtesy of his grinning wife. This was enough to convince him to abandon acting like a lord for the duration of this water fight; he followed his wife into the pond to splash her as well. The children had paused to watch when he had been splashed, expecting him to join exactly as he had; This appeared to be semi-common occurrence. Now that he had entered the fray all bets were off and adults were being splashed by each other and the children. Wolf stayed on the sidelines, avoiding splashes, watching the children in general but Kuro in particular until one of the more exuberant children, not paying attention, hit Kuro in the chest with an elbow and knocked him under the surface of the pond.

It took Wolf three seconds to grab his master and lift him out of the water and get him to the shore; it took another minute for Kuro to get his breath back after getting the wind knocked out of him. Inosuke was kneeling at his other side, concerned, but hadn’t said anything; he hadn’t even entered the pond by the time Wolf had gotten Kuro to the shore. The children had seen him go underwater but neither the lord nor the lady, still splashing each other closer to the middle of the pond, had noticed him or that the children had stopped splashing them. Wolf waved a hand at the children; they resumed playing but were noticeably more careful. 

“My lord, are you alright?” Wolf asked as soon as Kuro was breathing normally again.

“Yes, Wolf, thank you.” He looked up at his shinobi, alternating between watching him and scanning the pond in case of another accident. “I think I will be done for the day, especially if Mother and Father decided to get wet. If we hurry I should be able to change and call  _ them _ in to get clean for dinner for once.” He looked up with a grin. The other children, realizing Kuro was done playing, began heading back to their homes down the hill, accompanied by laughter as the elder Hiratas continued their water war.

Wolf checked Kuro’s room before he made it inside, Inosuke following him to stand outside the door. He felt his mouth twitch when Kuro, in dry clothing, stood at the building’s entrance and yelled “You need to get changed for dinner!” at his parents, who apparently had not realized they were alone in the pond. Both were soaking wet; Wolf had seen Asami trip trying to avoid getting splashed and pull her husband down into the water with her while Kuro was finding dry clothing.

The elder Hiratas made their way back inside, sopping wet and slightly embarrassed but smiling at each other. 

“We will see you at dinner, Kuro, thank you.” Tatsuo nodded to his son as the two headed further into the building, dripping. 

Wolf remained outside while the household ate; Inosuke was protective in general but seemed more protective around mealtimes. It was easier to avoid the issue. He listened as Kuro returned to his room, blew out the candles, and fell asleep; then spent the night perched outside the closed window again.

Wolf could hear Inosuke’s greeting through the window in the morning. It sounded like Kuro’s lessons would end at the normal time, but he was expected to sit with his parents for something related to managing the Hirata’s people and land. Wolf waved when Kuro looked for him on his way to the tutoring building with the arriving children and quietly decided this was a good time to sleep. The day before had been quiet, but that was not a good excuse to put off sleeping another day. If he followed that logic like he had before he would end up spending almost four days awake before hallucinating that his grappling hook was turning into a snake and collapsing asleep when Owl tried to spar with him, which Owl had reacted poorly to once he woke up. As it was, he was working on less sleep than he preferred; usually he tried for two shorter naps throughout the day, but until he had gotten the lay of the land here he would have to function with one every other day.

He would sleep now, while Kuro was learning, and possibly eat the spare vegetables he had grabbed after. He probably would have to plan with Inosuke so he could sleep a little more frequently and not risk getting sloppy, so the man would be more alert while he was asleep, but he’d been unpleasant enough Wolf wanted to hold off on that. Decision made, Wolf settled into the same overhang on the roof and fell asleep.

Burning, burning, something was always burning. He was in one of the towns he’d passed through before Owl found him. The merchant that had taken advantage of his poor math skills and cheated him out of what could have been at least two meals was chasing him before turning into one of the samurai he’d seen wandering the Hirata estates. He tried to grapple away and realized he was a child again, and did not have any of his gear that would help him escape. He heard a woman yelling from far away.

Wolf rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he woke up. Two hours, maybe, this time. He checked that nothing had happened while he slept.

Inosuke still stood in front of the tutor’s building but was talking with another samurai who looked vaguely similar to him. Wolf prepared to walk over and jump down to get today’s lack of greeting when he heard a raised voice from the opposite direction. He frowned and concentrated on the sound; if someone was having an argument it probably wouldn’t concern him but he’d rather keep tabs on what was going on. 

Female. Older, probably, from the quaver, or scared. Or both. Just the one voice. It sounded like the person shouting in his nightmare. He looked towards Inosuke, still chatting, and clenched his jaw. As a shinobi, he should not show compassion; he needed to remain focused on his duties, to his father and to his master. 

But he could not just ignore that voice. He told himself it could be a potential threat to his lord and almost believed himself and he climbed the roof and slid down the other side looking for the voice’s owner. 

There. An older woman, a servant probably, backing up rapidly. He couldn’t see- wait. Gamefowl. Slightly bigger even than the ones in the courtyard in the retainer’s quarters. One must have gotten loose. It was following her, and it matched her height and was probably more than a match if it decided to attack. Wolf had seen people injured even from the small variant Butterfly had kept; this one could probably kill the older woman.

All of this went through Wolf’s head in the two seconds it took him to jump and run from his rooftop to one above the woman and leap down as the gamefowl decided to lunge. The woman tried to shield her head and neck with a scream, then cautiously lowered her hands as the expected attack failed to materialize. Wolf nodded to her as he pulled his sword out of the bird; it hadn’t heard him drop or pull it into a better position to run it through. He started to clean Kusabimaru, with a silent apology for using the blade to kill gamefowl of all things when the woman caught him in a blubbering, crying hug. Wolf stood very still, eyes wide, arms out, as she sobbed into his old kimono; he only caught fragments, but the overall theme of “Thank you for saving my life from that bird” came through. He wasn’t sure what to do; he had seen people hug back, which seemed overly familiar, or pat the hugger on the shoulder, but he was holding the sword still. It had just occurred to him that he could probably use his left hand when he heard footsteps coming towards them and swore internally to see Lord Tatsuo and the samurai Inosuke had been talking to running toward him. He didn’t want to pull the woman off him now; it would look worse than it already did. 

Lord Hirata’s cry of “Suzu?” was eclipsed by the samurai’s cry of “Mother!” Wolf kept his face blank but of course. The samurai looked similar enough to Inosuke they had to be related and here he was with her holding him and crying. The man already disliked him; how much worse would it get?

The samurai started trying to peel his still crying mother off Wolf as Lord Hirata took in the scene. He walked over as Wolf was freed, Suzu now crying into her son’s shoulder as he tried to make sense of what happened. “Wolf? It looks like you killed a loose gamefowl.” 

“Yes, my lord.” Wolf had sheathed his sword and kneeled the moment he could; he was getting blood on his hakama but he could always jump in the river later and clean it out. “I heard her trying to frighten it away, but it was following her. I killed it when it attacked.” He swallowed, wondering how much the gamefowl would cost; hopefully Owl would accept that the price was taken from his wages and not be too angry.

“You saved her life.” Tatsuo Hirata did not sound angry at the waste of food. Wolf risked a look upwards as the noble grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to his feet. 

“You saved the life of my wife’s favorite servant and my son’s first caretaker. And the mother of two of my trusted samurai. I will have to investigate how the bird got loose; they are supposed to be in an enclosed area with how dangerous they can be.” Lord Tatsuo breathed out, rubbing his face with one hand. “Here, help me drag this over to the kitchens. Inosuke is still with Kuro; you can be spared for a few minutes.” 

With the samurai still comforting the crying Suzu, Wolf dragged the gamefowl as he followed Lord Tatsuo to a doorway he had mostly ignored walking the grounds at night. The room it led to was fairly busy; with the Hiratas and most of their retainers on the estate grounds, lunch was the busy meal of the day. Wolf handed the bird off to a butcher while Tatsuo said something to one of the important looking servants; the noise and chaos here ensured Wolf hadn’t heard the exchange. He felt his stomach clench when the noble walked back over to him, frowning. He must have done something; maybe the bird was a pet and should have been restrained? Part of him insisted that was ridiculous but most of him was not listening. He was brought over to a currently empty corner as Lord Tatsuo bent enough they could have a semi private conversation.

“Wolf. The main chef says you haven’t been coming here for meals. She hasn’t seen you here at all, actually. You’ve been here four days; how have you been eating?” Not a happy tone of voice. Owl used that tone when he wasn’t angry yet but would be soon. Wolf had not had an actual, one-on-one conversation with the lord; the man had an intense stare.

“I can get food without relying on a kitchen, my lord, and I was scouting the area and decided not to waste time looking for it-” Wolf stopped as he heard Lord Tatsuo breathe in suddenly. He watched as the taller man blinked, then grimaced. 

“I did not show where anything was when you came, did I? Definitely not the kitchen, not the buildings, not the room we prepared, nothing. I- oh no. Please don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping outside as well as scavenging your meals.” Wolf started to open his mouth to reassure the man but decided it was better not to lie; Tatsuo mouthed a curse word that would have had Owl washing Wolf’s mouth out with soap. He looked Wolf in the eyes and continued. “Wolf, I am so sorry. While you have your duty to protect my son, we had a duty to you that we have failed so far. If you ask any of the chefs here for food they have orders to get you something, as long as someone is here, and usually there is at least one person. Please, eat something, and I will meet you in front of the main building entrance in half an hour to show you where everything is.” He did not leave until Wolf had nodded and gone to ask a chef for something; luckily for Wolf the head chef had anticipated this after Lord Tatsuo’s first question and had a bowl with rice and vegetables ready. 

Wolf had gone outside the main building as soon as he finished scarfing his meal and returned the bowl. Rice had been a very rare treat with Owl; meat and vegetables were easier to come by, but rice had to be bought or traded for and was expensive. He was a hired shinobi who had been here less than a week and they gave him rice? It must have been because Tatsuo felt bad or something. Inosuke had been glaring at him from across the pond, but Wolf ignored him; a room? Meals he did not have to pay for, with  _ rice _ ? Showing him where things were?  _ Tatsuo Hirata _ , the lord of the estates, showing him where things were? Owl had had him figure out where everything in his compound was. Probably Tatsuo would just introduce him to a servant who would show him around, he was too busy to spare time for a hired shinobi, wasn’t he? But he seemed concerned. Was this just what nobles were like, and normal people were like Owl?  _ Or is Owl the outlier here _ he stiffened when that thought appeared; as his father, Owl’s word was absolute; did it really only take four days and food he did not need to spar for or buy to have him questioning that?

Further debate with himself was cut off when Tatsuo emerged alone and walked straight towards him. “Wolf, good. Let me show you where everything is like I should have done. Come inside, first; that door leads to the dining hall, the kitchen is connected to that.” He himself, not a servant, walked Wolf through the first building, explaining the layout. The second building was mostly people’s rooms. 

“Kuro’s room is here. Inosuke’s rooms are over there. Your room is this one.” He opened the door; if the man could get nervous, Wolf would say that he was. Wolf looked inside and frowned. There was a pallet on the ground, a pair of chests, and a weapon and armor stand, and little room for anything else. Before he could say anything Lord Hirata broke in. “We can move your room if need be. I know this is fairly small, but we thought you would rather be closer to Kuro and this was the only space available.”

“Lord Hirata, this is more space than I require.” Or that he was used to; what would he do with two chests when he already was wearing all the clothing he owned? He wasn’t sure if he would even use the stands; he preferred keeping his sword near him and already disliked removing his armor if he didn’t have to. 

He couldn’t read Lord Tatsuo’s expression when he turned to check. After a moment, the noble began speaking again. “Keep it, please; it’s close enough to Kuro’s rooms you’ll be able to get to him quickly. Let me show you the tutoring buildings.” 

Wolf was reminded of the vertical tunnel on the other side of this building and asked about it as Tatsuo led him back outside, ignoring a frowning Inosuke. 

“It’s an escape route. I’m not overly fond of it- too easy to injure yourself going down, we cut the shaft too steep- but it should be hard to climb back up. Generally, unless someone is being buried in the graveyard, we ignore it and encourage retainers to do the same. The people here know of it, but we don’t want anyone else to.”

There was one final room Wolf was shown, back in the first building, after Tatsuo looked around quickly and ushered him in. “There is a temple down here. It’s...not well used, but it is hidden. Most of the servants are not aware of it, so I did not want to show you while there were several around. If we must, Asami or Inosuke have the only key, and they will switch day to day. This is where we will go if we have no other choice; it is the safest place in the estates.”

Against what were probably Lord Tatsuo’s wishes, Wolf spent the night perched outside Kuro’s window again, occasionally leaving to check something on the grounds. He also spent most of the night thinking. 

His room was easily four times the size of his room with Owl; he realized more that that wasn’t really a room, just a place to sleep and store things. Lord Tatsuo had ordered him to get at least one meal a day and strongly hinted he should be eating more frequently, when he had been eating every two out of three days with Owl because he couldn’t always win whatever challenges were set up for him to acquire the food. He’d overall eaten less before Owl had found him, depending on what he had found or how much he had sold to a merchant. Except for Inosuke, the people here were friendlier than any of the teachers Owl had found; perhaps this place was the outlier? It must be, he decided. He was just another nameless rogue shinobi, and the Hiratas were treating him like a person. Owl had made sure he knew that was not expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering, I have written on the original that the looks Tatsuo give Wolf is "I want to talk to Owl but I have a felling I'll disappear if I do"
> 
> Totally honestly I love the elder Hiratas and I am aware they're pretty much my ocs at this point but. Doesn't matter.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inosuke has joined the "We need to talk to Owl about how he was raising his kid" squad

Kuro began moving around shortly after the sun rose, and soon after Inosuke unlocked his door. Wolf paused from his ponderings to remember if Kuro’s door was always locked at night, and realized it was. Except for the first two nights, after he had opened the window, it was always closed, too. He would need to ask if there was a specific reason.

Breakfast, then lessons, like normal so far. Wolf decided to get food after Kuro was in with his teachers for the day and Inosuke was on guard. He watched as Kuro walked along the pond’s edge to the classrooms and waved again when the child was scanning the rooftops looking for him. Kuro smiled and walked inside, but Inosuke had been looking for that and followed Kuro’s gaze, pausing for a minute until he saw Wolf.

Wolf jumped down from the roof and walked over, expecting the normal lack of greeting from Inosuke and was very surprised when the man did not frown at him; he was more surprised when the samurai bowed like he considered Wolf an equal. 

“I am sorry for my behavior these past few days, Sh-Wolf. I was unused to having a partner watching over Kuro but that is not an excuse.” Wolf stared at him without speaking for a moment; with everything else happening over the past few days he had been relying on Inosuke’s rudeness to act as a balance and that was suddenly gone. Inosuke must have thought an explanation was needed. “I thought you were a good for nothing shinobi like the handful Lord Hirata has hired for jobs around the estates before. One of them, two years back, deliberately set a fire in the retainer’s quarters. But with the pond, and my brother Gensai told me what happened yesterday, with the gamefowl, and you saved my mother’s life.... you must not be like them, and I am sorry for judging you prematurely.”

Wolf just nodded. It took him a minute to get his thoughts in line to speak. Yes, this place had to be the outlier. “Thank you, Inosuke. I…” he wasn’t sure what else he could say. The samurai was frowning slightly, but it wasn’t the angry frown he had held previously; he looked concerned. “Sorry. The past few days have been...strange.” That was the best he could do right now, but Inosuke still looked concerned.

“Strange? Is someone else treating you how I was? Or is something wrong? I went by your room this morning and it was empty, but you were on the roof before Kuro woke up. If something’s wrong, Lo-”

“No, nothing’s wrong. Just. Strange.” Wolf scanned the area around the pond; Inosuke was watching him, looking concerned. “Everyone here is… kind? Helpful. It has taken some time to get used to that.”

“....What were people like before you came here?” Inosuke still looked concerned. 

“To the point. You have your job, you do your job. Teaching, learning. If someone can’t keep up they were sent away, I was told, but that was before Owl found me.”

Inosuke looked honestly alarmed, now, but before he could comment Wolf decided to change the subject. 

“Is there a reason Lord Kuro’s window is usually shut? I do not require it open, but I’m sure the room feels dead without new air.”

“Kuro sleepwalks. And sleeptalks, more frequently. If you haven’t heard him yet, you will; just don’t panic when you hear him. He walked out the window in his sleep once, several years ago, so we keep it closed, and his door is locked for the same reasons. Lord Tatsuo believes he has finally outgrown the sleepwalking, but he has a bell tied onto his sleeping things so someone will hear him if we are wrong.”

“I thought they were locked in case of kidnappers.”

“It’s both, really, but he made it out to the bridge over the lake, several years ago, and the lord and lady worry. That was part of how we found out about the Dragon’s Heritage, every route he could have taken should have injured him but he was unharmed when he woke up.” 

“Dragon’s Heritage? Oh, that he can’t bleed.”

“Cannot bleed or be otherwise injured. Lord Isshin has more information about it, we think, but he hasn’t sent the books over to Tatsuo. He and his grandson come here once a year, we think he’ll bring them the next time he comes. Lord Tatsuo only asked this last visit.” Wolf would have liked to ask more questions but Inosuke would only tolerate the subject change for so long.

“Owl is your father, and he trained you?”

“Foster father. He found me on a battlefield. I was willing to learn. He found multiple teachers, but he taught me mostly, yes.” Wolf would rather not discuss his history with the samurai, but the samurai wanted to discuss his history anyway.

“Battlefield? There haven’t been any major battles around since Isshin’s coup.”

“Yes.”

“How old were you-”

Wolf turned to look as someone came walking towards them; one of the servants he recognized from the day before, in the kitchen. She was carrying a pair of bowls. She handed a bowl to each man, then bowed as they thanked her, Inosuke like this was normal and Wolf following his lead, and left the same way she came. This was a more normal soup, not expensive rice.

“Usually I eat while Kuro is having his lessons, so I’m not distracted while he is eating. One of the servants will bring something over for breakfast and lunch and I’ll grab dinner after he is asleep. Is something wrong?” Wolf was frowning slightly.

“Three meals? Every day? Is there normally more activity? Everything has been quiet so far-”

“Wolf, how much do you eat normally?”

“A meal, two days out of three. It depended on what tasks I was set and what I finished.”

“You had to do tasks to earn food?”

“Yes? It made sure I learned what I needed to.” Inosuke was still frowning but Wolf was tired of talking and chose to drink the soup he had been handed instead. He had finished his bowl before Inosuke was half finished with his, earning another concerned frown and a resumption of questioning.

“Did Owl take food from you?”

“No? Not if I earned it. Before, people have. I haven’t had a good reason to not eat quickly.”

Inosuke had finally gotten the hint that Wolf did not want to talk about his past and stopped asking. 

The next few days were quiet, and Wolf fell into a routine. Spend the night alternating between staying near Kuro’s window and patrolling the grounds, eat breakfast with Inosuke after Kuro began lessons, sleep for a few hours in the small room he still had trouble thinking of as his, then keep watch on the rooftops near Inosuke, who had given him that alarmed look again when he mentioned he generally only slept about four hours a day. The children were still playing in the pond after lessons, but now both Wolf and Inosuke were in the water with them; Wolf was still dodging their splashes, but Inosuke tended to end up soaked. Despite Inosuke and Tatsuo both telling him he was supposed to be eating more than just once, Wolf had not gone back to the kitchen for another meal. Lunchtime was too hectic and he was on duty after Kuro had dinner; he didn’t have time to get anything else, he told himself. Part of him realized he was making excuses to remain how he had been taught.

A week into being at the estates two figures approached around breakfast time. Inosuke was standing guard; he had a tendency to ask what he probably thought were subtle questions about Wolf’s past and to avoid that Wolf would stay on the rooftop unless someone came by. 

Wolf focused on the two; one was the normal servant who brought food, but the other took a moment to place. The chef, the one Lord Hirata had asked if Wolf was getting meals through the kitchen. Wolf jumped down and immediately she sped up. 

“One meal is  _ not enough _ , master shinobi, and I know you haven’t been getting other meals from my kitchen.”  _ Jumping down was a mistake _ Wolf thought immediately but he did not have a chance to try and get back onto his rooftop before she was in front of him and poking the front of his armor. “Skip lunch if you’re that focused on your job but if I don’t see you come get dinner tonight I am telling Lord Hirata you are not fit enough to be guarding the young lord and we need to imprison you in the kitchen til you’ve put weight on.” Wolf did not look to the side to see the other servant or Inosuke’s reactions; he had put his hands up in submission. She seemed to be waiting for a response, though.

“I will get dinner from the kitchen tonight.” 

“And every single night you’re here from now on. I want a reason if you’re late, understand?”

“Can I eat in the kitchen while the household has dinner? Inosuke can continue guarding Lord Kuro during the mealtime, but I am guarding him once the household has eaten.”

“If that’s your preference just as long as you eat.” She leaned forward. “If I have to I will tell Suzu Nogami you haven’t been eating regularly and let her take care of it. She can and she will follow you around to make sure you eat.” She backed off and nodded when Wolf nodded in agreement; he did not lower his hands until she was several feet away and the other servant had handed him breakfast for the morning. He tried to ignore that she was grinning.

“ _ Tonight _ , master shinobi.” And with that she turned to Inosuke. “Gensai hasn’t found anything about that thing with glowing eyes, has he? If no one’s seen it for a week it probably moved on but a couple of servants are nervous about how big it was, moving around in the manor proper.”

“If he has I haven’t heard about it. But if no one’s seen it again there’s no reason to tell the Hiratas. They’d post more samurai around and if it’s gone that won’t help anyone.” She nodded and followed the servant who had already left for the kitchens as Wolf realized someone had seen him the first night he was there, and he had no idea how to tell anyone it was him.

Inosuke was thinking about something else. “She isn’t kidding about my mother. If she finds out you’re not eating regularly she  _ will _ hound you until you do. Speaking of.” He frowned at Wolf, whose mouth was full of soup, and continued, “I thought we had this conversation. Once a day is better than every other but you  _ need _ to be eating more than that, Wolf.” 

Wolf made a noncommittal noise as he chewed a nondescript vegetable chunk. Inosuke was still staring at him; he focused on eating to avoid eye contact, but he was finished before Inosuke had given up and realized he had to say something.

“This is how I was trained, Inosuke-”

“Every other shinobi I’ve talked to ate two to three meals a day, not a meal two days out of three.”

“Owl expects the best-”

“Then he would not have only fed you so little.”

Wolf decided to stop arguing. He would have to start getting dinner in the kitchens, if only so the chef didn’t make good on her threat and leave him to explain to Owl why he wasn’t doing the job he was hired to do. He handed the empty bowl to Inosuke and grappled back to his rooftop, back on watch.

“We’re not done with this conversation, Wolf. That is not normal.” 

Wolf went around to the back of the kitchens once Kuro had gone into the dining hall with Inosuke. The head chef had been watching for him and shoved a bowl of rice, meat, and veggies in his hands before he could say anything. Rice? Again?

“Every night for the rest of the time you’re here, rogue shinobi. I want an excuse if you’re late because I’m talking to Lord Tatsuo in the morning if no one sees you that evening.”

“Alright. I will be here.”

“Good. You seem like the first decent shinobi we’ve had for the young lord and I don’t want Tatsuo and Asami to lose that because you faint from hunger.” She saw his slight frown. “....That better be a ‘I don’t like this cook getting up in my business’ frown, master shinobi, not an ‘I’ve already fainted from hunger before’ frown.” Wolf decided not to respond and realized too late that that was a response in itself. “Shinobi. Do I need to just lock you in here for a few days anyway.”

“No. It has been a long time since that happened, I will be fine.”

“Define a long time for me.” She had moved to block the exit that didn’t lead into the dining hall. Wolf had finished his meal and did not want to leave through the dining hall, so he bit back a sigh. 

“Before my foster father found me, so years ago. I have not since.” That incident had caused him to ask one of the nicer store owners to show him what he was missing with counting and coins and values; he hadn’t known how much each coin was worth before that. 

“Alright. But I’m making sure that doesn’t happen again, rogue shinobi. I make sure everyone on this estate eats, and I will continue if that means I have to tell Suzu Nogami you aren’t.” She let Wolf leave when he nodded and he spent the evening next to Kuro’s window, thinking. 

Halfway through the night he heard sounds from inside Kuro’s room; after a moment he realized it was Kuro, saying… Who was in the corner?

He could see the corner from this perch easily; it was empty. After a moment he remembered Inosuke telling him about the sleeptalking. That was probably what he had heard, but he remained on alert anyway.

The next morning Kuro waved him down before his lessons could begin.

“Wolf, I think I woke up at some point last night, and, well-” Kuro looked down and bit his lip as Wolf suddenly realized what he was about to say, “There were glowing yellow eyes it looked like staring into my room through the window you’re usually near and I know it sounds really weird and I think I might have just dreamt it but I was worried.” He finished in a rush and Inosuke looked alarmed. 

“That was just me, my lord.”  _ I did not want to explain this to Inosuke _ he should have remembered that his eyes did that especially after the chef was concerned about it the day before; but it was so much a part of him he tended to forget. “I have very good night vision, but my eyes will reflect any light nearby.” Not totally accurate, but according to Owl normal people did not have glowing eyes nor did they have his excellent dark vision and Wolf did not want Inosuke telling every person here that he was the glowy eyed creature running around.

“Really? How does that-” 

“Lord Kuro!” One of the tutors had come outside and was frowning at the little group of them. Kuro, startled, yelled “Later!” and took off into the tutoring building. Inosuke was staring at him; Wolf was actively trying not to make eye contact.

“Something with glowing eyes wandering around the estates scared some of the servants last week. Actually, that was the first night you were here, I believe.” He wasn’t even going to pretend to be subtle. 

“....that was me.” No good way out of this. 

“Were you going to tell someone it was you?”

“If I found a good way to tell someone, yes.”

“Is that something Owl di-”

“No. They just do. They always have and I forget that they do. I do not have an explanation for this, Inosuke. It just is.” He shut his mouth for a moment, then drew breath for another question.

“Lord Kuro was talking in his sleep last night and must have woken up when I was checking that there wasn’t someone in the corner of his room like he said there was.” Wolf anticipated the next question correctly, because Inosuke stopped asking questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inosuke wasn't going to be terrible forever. He's still not really competent but he's trying.
> 
> Honestly a lot of the first part of this is giving Wolf some character development knowing it's all going away soon.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf was hired for a reason.

The next trip to Kensato village came faster than Wolf realized; this time, both elder Hiratas came, along with Kuro. This trip Kuro slipped away from his parent’s business dealings to play with the village children while Wolf supervised, since he could keep up better than Inosuke, who chose to stand guard in the main square they were running through instead. 

Wolf had decided to stay on the rooftop that night, rather than patrol around the grounds. He was next to an alcove a rooftop away, tonight, that gave a good view of Kuro’s window.

So he saw the shadow moving around on the ground below, creeping along the side of the buildings, deliberately trying to stay out of sight of his normal perch next to Kuro’s window. He focused; a man, dark colored clothing, no visible sword but he might have something smaller than a katana. He was looking at the rooftops, but even with his eyes glowing Wolf was in a spot hard to see from the ground. Yelling would cause the man to take off, but there might be others creeping around. 

You only need one captive, though. 

Wolf shifted, making sure his grappling hook was ready, as the man reached the wall under Kuro’s room, then ran up the wall to grab the roof. Wolf had grappled across before he finished pulling himself up, was sneaking up as the man started trying to find a way to open Kuro’s window, and then the man had both of his arms tied together with the grapple’s rope, a sword to his neck, and an unhappy Wolf making sure it bled a little. He recalled the layout of this building that Lord Tatsuo had shown him, and dragged his captive over to a nearby window, and tapped on it, still scanning the grounds around the now whimpering would-be kidnapper.

“Wha- Wolf, why- who is that.” He had really hoped Inosuke would be more on the ball about this.

“He was trying to get into Lord Kuro’s rooms. Wake up the guards, there may be more. I’ll keep this one secure.” Wolf dragged the man back towards Kuro’s window; he was a solid half foot shorter than his captive, but he knew how to use leverage to keep the man moving as he needed him to. He waited as he heard movement inside and watched several samurai stream out of the main building, lamps and torches lit, and begin scouring the grounds for anyone else creeping around. Inosuke woke up Kuro; it sounded like he was staying in the lord’s rooms until they were sure the estates were cleared. 

A taller figure walked out of the main building and turned to look at the rooftops; Tatsuo Hirata. His gaze passed over them twice before Wolf realized the now lit lamps next to the path were hiding him and his captive even if they did mask his eyes.

“Here, Lord Tatsuo.”

“Inosuke is inside with Kuro. Come down here.”

Wolf dragged his captive up to his feet, jammed his shoulder into the man’s stomach and jumped off the roof before he could recover. To his credit, Tatsuo did not jump when Wolf and the other man hit the ground suddenly. He walked over as Wolf made sure his captive was still secure.

“Where…?” 

“Along the tutoring buildings and then the far side of the pond. Trying to stay out of sight. I caught him when he got next to Lord Kuro’s window.” The man was trying to get his hands out of the rope but Wolf had spent some of his precious free time learning how to bind someone so they couldn’t free themselves. “I do not know if it is just him or if there are several.”

“Why not just kill him?”

“I cannot ask who sent him if he’s dead.”

“True. I can ask Tashi-” Tatsuo reared back as the man suddenly lunged forward, into Wolf’s sword; Wolf pulled it out of the way and shoved him into the ground, checking to make sure then man had not succeeded in slitting his throat. 

“So he cannot be questioned-” The man convulsed suddenly; Wolf saw blood spill from his mouth. He was dead before either man could act.

“....bite down. A suicide drug.”

Lord Tatsuo sighed. “So we really can’t question him. Pity. I would have liked to know who sent a potential kidnapper here prepared to kill himself if he was caught. Thank you, Wolf, I’ll have someone take care of the body.”

“My lord. I will be on the rooftops in case another one comes.”

The appointed time had come and gone. The hired shinobi- Viper, he had called himself- had not come, neither alone nor with Kuro. Owl sighed.

“See the activity? They’re combing the retainer’s quarters at the base of the hill, too. Moving pretty fast.” Butterfly leaned against the old pagoda, sitting on the first floor roof while Owl paced on the ground.

“He must have alerted one of the samurai.” She had been perched on the topmost floor to watch the shinobi’s attempt and had reported Wolf catching him to Owl. 

“Well. I’m sure we could find someone better than him, but not one willing to die for our cause. And you know how Wolf gets, it’s a bad idea for one of us to kidnap the child. If nothing else the Hiratas will know it was us, and then the Ashina will know, and we’ll have a country hunting us down while we deal with the Interior Ministry.” Owl had secured her help with the promise of her getting the Dragon’s Heritage; she did not need to know any other plans.

“Time to call in Masatsuna, and see if we can get the ministry’s blessing for a raid.”

There was silence for a few minutes, both parties mentally reviewing the plan laid out for this eventuality. Butterfly jumped down, and frowned slightly when she looked at Owl.

“You’re smiling. We’re going to have to sell a plausible lie to the Interior Ministry on why we want Kuro so they’ll help but not take him themselves and you’re smiling.” 

“We are going to have to push this plan out another month and I’ll need to find some meaningless errands to send Wolf on but… he did well. He could have been a fitting successor.”

“He’s compassionate and already attached himself to the lordling like the stray dog he is. You realize we’re going to have to kill him?”

“Of course. It’s a pity I couldn’t train him out of that. He could have been a good shinobi.”

Kuro was understandably nervous the next day, having been woken up in the middle of the night by Inosuke barging in. He had ended up spending the rest of the night sleeping in his parents’ room. Lessons had been suspended; the Hiratas were reviewing security measures and had asked Kuro to stay in his room for the day. Inosuke was remaining inside and on guard; Wolf had been convinced to join them from the roof eventually.

“I know it’s silly to be worried still, since you both took care of it, but I am.” Kuro had picked up and put down three different books just in the hour Wolf had been inside, kneeling next to the window. Inosuke, sitting next to the door, started reassuring him with the same thing he had said twice already. It had exactly the same effect it had the first two times, that is, nothing. Worse, Wolf was fairly sure Inosuke knew it wasn’t helping, but was just as worried as Kuro and didn’t know what else to do. 

It would probably be better to distract Kuro; but Wolf mostly had weapons on him, which were a poor choice when he had almost been kidnapped. He glanced around the room, thinking; he could probably ask about one of the books, but Kuro found his own distraction before Wolf could make out any of the faded titles.

“Wolf, you never told me why your eyes glow.” He sounded faintly accusatory; Wolf had remembered that he had asked, but still didn’t want to talk about it in front of Inosuke, who had also focused on him when Kuro did. If it helped Kuro, though, he was a little surprised to find he was willing to risk Inosuke telling the rest of the estates.

“I’m not sure why they do, my lord. They have for as long as I can remember.” He held still as Kuro walked right up next to him; but Kuro apparently realized that what he was about to do was rude, and paused. “I don’t think there’s anything out of the ordinary besides the glow and my night vision, my lord, if that’s what you wanted to check.” Kuro frowned and nodded, then picked up a book that now Wolf could see was about animals. He started paging through, still frowning, until he found what he was looking for and turned the book around so Wolf could see a close up drawing of a cat’s eye.

“Cat eyes catch the light and reflect it; is that what your eyes do?”

“I just know that they glow, my lord.”

“Hmm.” Wolf could see Inosuke grinning from his spot near the door, but Kuro was focusing on this now and no longer sounded scared, so Wolf chose to ignore it. 

“If they reflect light, then there shouldn’t be a glow if there isn’t a light source nearby, but if there is a glow…” Kuro trailed off, staring at a blanket, and Wolf had a premonition of what his future for the next five minutes held. But Kuro seemed to have forgotten about the kidnapper; that was worth having a blanket on his head, he decided. 

“...Do you want to test that theory now, my lord?” He’d just deal with Inosuke later, but Kuro shook his head.

“No, we can when it gets dark out Wolf, but thank you.” He had transferred his gaze back to the animal book. “I wonder if there are animals with eyes that glow, not just reflect light…” He picked up the book and started paging through it more slowly, checking each description. Inosuke, still grinning, settled back against the door for a moment, then surged up to his feet. Wolf also heard the footsteps coming up the corridor and watched the door; he didn’t want to run in front of Kuro and destroy the fragile peace he had now in case this was someone expected. 

“Kuro?” It was Asami Hirata, and Wolf and Inosuke both relaxed a little. “We’re done and you can be out of your room now. No lessons for today, but your father found an old game we don’t think we taught you. Or we can play in the pond again?”

“Pond first.” Kuro grabbed a slip of fabric from the front of the book and used it to mark his place before running to follow his mother. Insouke nodded and followed them out the door as Wolf left through the window. Some of the retainer’s children joined the Hiratas playing in the pond for a few hours, Inosuke keeping watch around the pond while Wolf helped supervise the children in the pond by unspoken agreement. Then both took up positions around the door and window in the elder Hirata’s room as they taught Kuro the strategy game Tatsuo had found; judging by the sound, he had hidden it because he was tired of Asami beating him at it every time they played, and Kuro took after his mother.

Wolf had gotten his dinner while the household was eating and now was waiting next to the slightly open window for Kuro, escorted by Inosuke, to return. He did not think his lord would forget about his eyes a second time.

And he was right; as soon as Inosuke left, Kuro was at the window, staring up with wide eyes.

“What happens if you cover your eyes with your hand, Wolf? They’re still glowing, so it’s probably an actual glow, not just reflecting light- wait. Can you lean in a little more?” Wolf obliged and Kuro actually gave a little gasp.

“My lord?”

“Your pupils aren’t usually like that- they’re slits right now, like a cat’s. That must be part of your night vision…” Kuro trailed off, then shook his head. “I’m going to keep looking if there is anything similar in that book. Thank you, Wolf.” And he went to bed as Wolf smiled slightly and went back to watching for any movement on the grounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a little bit of cruel irony I feel that in trying to keep Kuro safe they hired the son of the one person who actually really wants to use Kuro.
> 
> Also I maintain in a slightly different genre Wolf's night eyes would have been more than a loading screen and a change on the in-game model.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Owl has returned to the estates

Three days after the kidnapping attempt, Owl came to the estates. Kuro had started lessons an hour ago, and Inosuke and Wolf had finished breakfast maybe ten minutes prior when Wolf saw him walking to the main audience chamber, escorted by a servant. He looked over to Inosuke giving him a weird look.

“Who is that? You tensed up. Someone you know?”

“Owl. He told Lord Tatsuo he may need me for tasks; he must have found something he needs me to do.” The servant had already come back out and was heading towards the two.

“Master Wolf, your presence is required by Lord Tatsuo.”

Wolf nodded to Inosuke and headed for the chamber quickly, rather than keep Tatsuo or his father waiting. Tatsuo was standing, and his father had been kneeling, but rose as he walked in. Wolf knelt in front of him.

“Wolf, I have a task I need you for. Something quick. I will guard the young lord until your return.” Lord Tatsuo nodded, but remained where he was as Owl knelt next to Wolf and lowered his voice. 

“Monk, has a birthmark on his head. Living in Jamitori, day and a half south east. He’s expecting me. Bring his necklace back here.”

“Sir.” Wolf nodded and left quickly; he heard Tatsuo as he left, “Master Owl, let me show you where things are if you’ll be here a few days.”

  
  


Wolf checked his pouch again, making sure the monk’s necklace was tucked away like he needed it, and finished climbing the last hill before he could see the estates. He had hurried to the village and back; he hadn’t wanted Kuro to be alone for longer than needed, especially so soon after the kidnapping attempt.  _ Inosuke was there _ he kept reminding himself of that, but he was worried Owl might have decided the samurai was letting Wolf slack off and talked to Lord Hirata about removing him, or took the direct route.

Wolf crested the hill and looked out at the estates, with the sun beginning to set on the lake. He breathed a short sigh of relief that everything appeared fine.  _ It’s not like Owl was going to light the estates on fire _ he berated himself silently as he grappled down the hill to the lake. Normally he’d just swim across but the monk’s necklace appeared to have something inside and Wolf didn’t want to get it wet. He ran over to the bridge and hurried across and up the hill, nodding as the retainers who recognized him waved.

Owl appeared on the rooftop near Kuro’s window as Wolf approached.

“And?”

“Here, sir.” Wolf knelt and handed the necklace over. Owl undid a small clasp and checked what appeared to be incense inside, then nodded and closed it. 

“Good. I leave Lord Kuro in your hands again. All was quiet. I will let Lord Tatsuo know you are back and I am leaving.” And Owl jumped off the roof and left towards the main audience chamber as Wolf realized that it was dinner time at the estates. And he had not gotten food from the kitchen for the three days he had been gone. He debated his course of action for a minute; he had only eaten twice, small things he had managed to get as he travelled, to minimize the time he was gone, so he was hungry, and now that he was getting used to not being hungry it bothered him more. But he wasn’t sure how long dinner had been going on and it was very possible Kuro would be back in his rooms soon, and Wolf would be on duty as soon as he was. He would have to apologize to the chef tomorrow and convince her to not send Suzu after him.

A few minutes later there was movement inside the room; it was Kuro, getting something from a chest. He glanced out the window and did a double take when he saw Wolf, rushing over and opening it.

“Wolf, you’re back?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Good. Father did leave dinner suddenly, it must have been Owl leaving. I’ll be back soon, but Mother wanted to see my progress with classes.” And with that he hurried off again. Wolf settled a little more on his rooftop spot, scanning the grounds as a handful of retainers left the main building. He would have to wait until tomorrow to get something to eat; he had a feeling that Owl wouldn’t actually leave the grounds. He hadn’t seen Owl leave, but hadn’t expected to. 

Kuro returned quickly and replaced the papers before blowing the candles out and going to sleep. Wolf reached over quietly and closed the window; if he would be moving around tonight, he did not want to risk coming back to Kuro wandering on the rooftop. 

Wolf spent the night much how he had spent the first night at the Hirata Estates, splitting his time between roaming and keeping watch next to Kuro’s window. Owl appeared to have truly left the estates. He turned to look through the window when Inosuke, thankfully not removed by Owl, unlocked Kuro’s door; Kuro was uncharacteristically still sleeping and had to be woken up to get breakfast and get to his lessons. Wolf waited until Kuro had quickly headed across the pond area and into the classrooms to jump down next to Inosuke, who hadn’t been scanning the rooftops this morning.

“Wolf, you’re back. Good.”

“Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“No.” He said it a little too quickly for Wolf’s peace of mind, and looked away from the frown. 

“Inosuke. What happened while I was gone.” Kuro hadn’t seemed hurt or distressed; had something happened to someone else? Inosuke made a face and eventually turned back to Wolf.

“Nothing happened. Honestly.”

“Then why are you acting like something happened.”

“I don’t like Owl.” Inosuke looked guilty having said that out loud. “Something about how he was acting made me suspicious and I prefer you being here. You seem to be looking for threats to Kuro here. Owl reminded me of the other shinobi we’ve had, that caused problems. I know he’s your father-”

“A lot of people have that reaction to him. He’s probably aware. He plans for things, all the time, and plans for his plans, and comes off as unapproachable because of it.”

“Alright. But I’m glad you’re back.” Any further conversation was cut short by the appearance of a servant carrying a bowl. She handed the bowl to Inosuke and bowed hurriedly to Wolf, saying “I’ll get another bowl, we didn’t know you were back,” and walked away quickly.

“Did Owl say something about the meals?”

“He turned it down when Yui came by the first morning. He asked me if that’s a normal thing. I told him Akari threatened to lock you in the kitchen if you didn’t eat and it’s easier for everyone to not upset her.” He looked over in time to see the face Wolf made. “Are you worried he’ll be upset?”

Wolf just shrugged in response. The servant was back with breakfast for him before he had to answer the question, but now Inosuke was staring at him until he responded.

“I don’t know. Sometimes I expect him to be upset and he doesn’t seem to care, then something that should be fine upsets him. I suppose I’ll find out if he’s still around the estates.”

“Didn’t he leave?”

“Probably not. He was around for a few days after I started here, too.”

“No one saw him-”

“No, they wouldn’t. I only saw him once.” Inosuke stopped asking questions, finishing his breakfast quietly. 

Kuro was quieter than normal after lessons. He smiled when he noticed Wolf was hovering near him at the same time Wolf realized he was. 

“I’m fine, Wolf. I know Owl was here while you were gone, but I only saw him a few times and I was looking. I’m happier seeing you around.”

When Kuro and Inosuke went in for dinner, Wolf went around to the kitchen, not sure what to expect. He crept inside; the chef was facing a sink, not the doorway. She still started talking as soon as he was fully inside.

“It’s been three days, master shinobi. I have half a mind to set Suzu on you regardless of what excuse you have.”

“I was sent on an errand by my father and just got back this morning.” Well, last night, but close enough.

“That’s what Lord Tatsuo said, but I didn’t see any other shinobi in here.” She had turned to face him, arms crossed and frowning. 

“He-”

“He is where you got the mindset that you eat infrequently so I would have liked to lock him in here too. If you’re sent on another errand send him to me, please, I need to talk to him. But since you came right here once you were able to…” She grabbed a bowl off a stack of clean ones, filled it with the soup the family was having, and forced the bowl into Wolf’s hands.

“Thank you.” Wolf moved into a corner to drink the soup as quickly as he could, placed it in the pile of dirty dishes and ducked out of the kitchen while the chef was dealing with a servant who had hurried in. 

Wolf settled right back into the routine he had created, watching over Lord Kuro. He had been jumpy the first few days, expecting Owl somewhere around the estates, but hadn’t seen him at all. 

Kuro had recovered from his kidnapping scare and back to his normal happy self, and seeing him relaxed helped Wolf relax as well. He fell right back into his routine as well; lessons and playing with the other children afterwards. 

Kuro chose not to go with Tatsuo to Kensato the next time he went; he was still digging through the animal book, but had started keeping a separate notebook for animals with reflective eyes. Wolf tried not to notice that he had a page labeled “Animals with Glowing Eyes” that had his name on it and nothing else. 

It was quiet. And it remained quiet. Kuro went on the next trip to Kensato; Wolf was glad to see he had apparently given up on his quest and did not ask his father about getting more books on animals, having exhausted the book he had to no avail. 

The day after Wolf was supervising the children playing in the pond. It was the height of summer now; several of them chose to sit in a shallow area rather than run around. Kuro did not; Kuro had never acted affected by the heat. He wasn’t unsuccessfully trying to splash Wolf like several of the other children, but focusing on getting the others soaked. 

Inosuke was standing in the shallow area with the children who didn’t want to play, watching as Wolf kept pace with the group moving around. 

Wolf focused more on Kuro; he had more energy than the other children and was running around more, and not watching where he was going, since he was less likely to run into another child running as quickly as the water would let them.

So Wolf saw when Kuro tripped over something-a rock, probably- in the pond, and fall towards the small island. He wasn’t close enough this time; Kuro’s mouth hit one of the rocks along the border of it. Wolf was able to grab him before he fell into the pond and set him on the island carefully checking what had broken.

Nothing had broken. Kuro wasn’t even bleeding, which caused Wolf to frown for a minute before remembering what Owl had told him coming here. Kuro couldn’t bleed; that was why Wolf was here.

“Does anything hurt?” Could he break bones? Bruise? Would being knocked into the water again even do anything? Suddenly this was a big grey area Wolf needed to know about and he found himself totally blank. 

“No, I’m fine. Thank you, Wolf.” And he got up and went right back to playing with the other children, who had paused while Wolf was checking on him. 

Inosuke nodded ten minutes later as Kuro was called to change for dinner and the children dispersed. “Someone told you why you’re guarding him, right?”

“Yes, I just forgot. Falling and hitting the rocks like that should have done something.”

“Not for him. He grabbed a sword, when he was younger. Everyone panicked and he was fine, no cuts, no bleeding, no scars. And I told you about his sleepwalking. The time he made it to the bridge there was no way he could have without breaking something.”

“...Do we know what the limits are, if anything can hurt him regardless, anything about it beyond Kuro cannot bleed?”

“No. Tatsuo asked for the books about it his uncle has last year and hasn’t received anything yet.” Inosuke gave him a weird look. “Why-”

“I am here to protect him. If something can injure him, I need to prioritize someone using that. If Lord Kuro could be injured by an arrow but not a sword I’d need to deal with an archer before I dealt with a swordsman, yes?”

“Y-yes. That makes sense.” Inosuke went inside as Wolf went around to the kitchen to avert the chef’s wrath another day.

Tatsuo came looking for Wolf and Inosuke the next morning after breakfast.

“Kuro said he tripped yesterday and you were concerned about it?”

“Yes, Lord Tatsuo.”

Tatsuo sighed. “It is part of the Dragon’s Heritage. I’m sending a letter to Uncle asking for the books he has again; with the unrest from the south I think he’s forgotten. We had a doctor from Ashina here who was the source of what little we know; when Kuro made it out to the bridge without being injured, she was the only person who knew enough to know what that meant. That and his hair. So, he cannot bleed or be injured and we were told he might be able to give that to others, but we don’t know what that means or what it could entail. It hasn’t stopped the rumors, though.” That last sentence was more muttered than said; like a rational person Tatsuo was unhappy his son was being targeted for kidnapping. 

“I was concerned if anything can injure him, my lord. If I needed to prioritize a weapon or item if another kidnapper comes.”

“As of right now, we don’t think there is anything, but we haven’t exactly been testing that. Tripping, drops, swords- none of those do anything.” He sighed. “I don’t want to find the thing that can hurt him. Thank you, both of you.” And turned and went back to what he had been doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're not starting the raid yet but it's coming. Owl needed the lay of the land first.
> 
> Also "can't bleed" is very open ended. Can Kuro break bones? Be poisoned? I don't know. I've chosen to go with Kuro is pretty much immortal and can't be injured or killed without a mortal blade.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuro wants to explore the lake, and them some unexpected visitors arrive.

Kuro did not want to splash in the pond with the other children the next day; lessons had been shorter, but he seemed to pick up that whether he was injured or not Wolf was nervous to have him around the pond after he fell the day before. 

Instead, Kuro came right out and stopped in front of Inosuke and Wolf. He paused for a moment before asking.

“Could we explore the lake, today, instead of the pond?” He looked hopeful and he looked more at Wolf than Inosuke, who was making a face, and answered before Wolf did.

“My lord, after you got lost last time, and with how high it is right now-”

“I didn’t get lost, no one told me when we started to go back. And I don’t have to go into the water, just the shoreline.”

“I will take him.” Inosuke at least had seemed to forget Wolf was there for a moment and jumped a little; but this sounded like a conversation they had had before, with how Kuro was lining up his arguments, and probably not one Kuro would win. Noble or not, they were in charge of his safety, but, while Inosuke was unwilling, he was not the only person keeping watch over Kuro now. Wolf needed to see the lakeside anyway. He had explored parts of it, while Kuro had his lessons and Inosuke stood guard, but not enough. When Inosuke had not changed his expression, Wolf added, “I can swim, Inosuke. And Kuro cannot be left behind if I am only watching him.” The man made faces for a minute, thinking about it, then sighed and nodded.

“Alright. I leave Lord Kuro in your hands for a few hours, then. I’ll let Lady Asami know. Be back before sunset or I will send out search parties.” Wolf nodded seriously as Kuro laughed and took the lead down the road, past the retainer’s quarters and to the lake.

There were some small islands, closer to the far side. Wolf had intended to stay on the close side but agreed to head to that side as soon as Kuro asked.

“I can take you to the islands if you wish, the water is deeper there.” Wolf was looking around, but keeping a close eye on Kuro, who wanted to climb trees and the cliffs that mostly cupped the lake. They had made a slow way around and Kuro was eyeing the falls that fed it. Wolf frowned; they would be too loud for Kuro to hear him easily.

“Lord Kuro, here, just a moment.” But there were reeds over here, hollow ones; they had a handful of good uses but the important one, now, was a makeshift whistle. It only took a few minutes for him to cut a decent piece and carve a notch in before handing it to Kuro. “Don’t try it yet, my lord, it needs another piece.” There were some dry branches here, it wasn’t too much more work to cut something in the right shape, and Wolf had had a lot of practice doing this with Butterfly, a shinobi Owl had known well and called in to teach him occasionally. This had been one of the few things she had taught that had not ended in injury.

“The falls are loud. If you need me immediately, use that, and I will be there.” Kuro nodded, holding the whistle as Wolf began cutting another reed. “If I need you to come to me, I will also have one in a moment.”

“Can I try it? So I know what it will sound like?” Wolf nodded and Kuro blew into the whistle; it wasn’t as loud as it probably could have been because Kuro was young and did not have the lung capacity, but Wolf could hear it over the falls, which was all he needed. A little surprisingly Kuro did not continue to blow on it after the first time, and waited for Wolf to finish his before setting off to explore the falls.

It was easily half an hour before sunset when Kuro and Wolf finished their climb back to the estates, Kuro dripping slightly from a slip next to the falls, Wolf drenched from diving into the water to keep Kuro from falling in completely. The other children had already dispersed and Inosuke was… somewhere, presumably. As they walked through the main gate Tatsuo and Asami walked down from a porch to greet them.

“Kuro, you didn’t tell us you wanted to go to the lake.” Tatsuo didn’t sound hurt, and was smiling slightly; Wolf saw him glance at both of them and probably decide he was glad he wasn’t soaking wet.

“You didn’t want to go after I stayed there another half hour last time.” Came the matter of fact answer. “But Wolf was willing to come with me, and we went all the way to the falls and Wolf made this whistle so he could hear me if I needed him.” And the whistle was produced and inspected by both elder Hiratas as Wolf felt an unfamiliar thrill of terror. 

“Did you just make this down at the lake?” Tatsuo sounded impressed and Wolf nodded. “It’s good quality for making this so quickly.” Wolf fought down the sudden warmth that filled him; this man was far too loose with praise, Butterfly would have told him it was passable at best. 

“May I?” Asami held a hand out, Tatsuo passing the little whistle over. She immediately blew into it, hard, producing a much louder whistle than Kuro had been capable of and causing Tatsuo to cover his ears and give her a betrayed look. “It works well!” She was grinning hugely like she didn’t see Tatsuo and Kuro jump and Wolf flinch from the sound. “Here, Kuro, I’ll return this to you. Wolf, thank you. We will see you tomorrow.” She nodded and led Kuro inside for dinner, Tatsuo following and reaching for one of her hands on the way in. Wolf made his way around the buildings, rather than drip inside, as he walked to the kitchens.

The chef turned as he walked in and shook her head and pointed back outside. 

“I don’t want you dripping in here, rogue shinobi. Get as much of that out outside as you can.” Wolf paused for only a second then retreated to squeeze as much of the water out of his things as possible. When he reentered tentatively a bowl was shoved into his hands and then he was pulled in front of the huge clay oven. 

“You’re out all night watching for anyone else coming after the young lord, I won’t have you catch your death doing it sopping wet. Eat slowly for once and dry off a little, then I’ll let you leave.” He should have eaten quickly and left immediately anyway; he needed to be ready for when Kuro went to bed. Owl would have expected it. 

But. Her words made sense. It was easier to defend if he wasn’t sick. He told himself it was the sensible course of action, ignoring the feeling that Owl would disapprove, and ate more slowly and let the oven dry his things before leaving for his rooftop perches.

Two weeks later Kuro had been in his lessons for an hour when Wolf saw a group start crossing the bridge, far below the estates proper. He called to Inosuke, standing near the door, but stayed where he was, watching them, as Inosuke found a servant and sent them to inform Lord Tatsuo.

Listening to the sudden increase of activity, Wolf gleaned that this was finally a group sent by Kuro’s great uncle who was apparently the person in charge of the country. Isshin Ashina. This group probably didn’t include him, though. He and a grandson visited once a year to celebrate the new year and otherwise remained in Ashina proper, according to Inosuke.

None of the party split off, no one acted suspicious, and Tatsuo and Asami received them happily as Kuro was still occupied, but Wolf remained on high alert, just in case. 

The next morning Tatsuo and one of the men who had come stopped Kuro from going to his normal lessons. Wolf stayed on guard outside the room they went to; Inosuke was at a second entrance. 

“Lord Kuro, I served Lord Takeru, as his page. Lord Isshin did not want to risk losing the books on the Dragon’s Heritage but wanted to get what information we can to you before he visits himself. As I told Lord Tatsuo last night, I am probably the most educated person on the Dragon’s Heritage currently living.”

Tatsuo probably hadn’t realized how good Wolf’s hearing was, and Wolf debated for a second telling them he could hear, but decided not to. He might need to know what Kuro was capable of.

“I know I can’t bleed. What else is there?”

“You cannot be injured by normal means. You can also give part of your heritage to someone as you choose; Lord Takeru had a samurai bound to him, and I am unsure if you can have more than just one person. I can tell you how to do that only; I never witnessed it in person.” Something from Tatsuo, and the man began talking more quietly. Wolf decided not to keep trying to listen; the concentration needed would take away from watching for threats or just anyone else approaching.

Kuro was talking with Takeru’s page for the better part of the day. Wolf only heard snippets; contextless phrases he forgot quickly. The group from Ashina was present the better part of the week, apparently to recuperate before travelling back through the mountains. 

Kuro seemed more thoughtful after they left, but was talking with Tatsuo and Asami both a lot more. He seemed concerned about a choice related to the Heritage, but Wolf was never close enough to hear the entire question, just his parents' reassurance that Kuro wouldn’t have to make the choice for a long time. 

Three weeks after the group left, Owl came back to the estates, later in the afternoon this time. Wolf left Inosuke to guide a sad looking Kuro to the dining hall as he left for the main entrance hall, where Tatsuo was conversing with Owl. 

Whatever they had been talking about, the conversation broke off as Wolf entered and knelt in front of his father, who bowed politely to Tatsuo and knelt next to Wolf. 

“Kuzumaki, ashigaru with a scar across his face. Blue eyes. I am expected. I will deal with his master and know if you lie to me.”

“Sir.” Wolf rose, bowed to Owl and to Tatsuo, and left the estates. Kuzumaki was straight north, maybe three days round trip if he was quick finding the ashigaru. Part of him worried for a minute as he ran across the bridge about why Owl was sending him after a lowly soldier, an easy target even when he had just been beginning his training, but it wasn’t his place to question his father. Even telling himself that, as he took the northern path and pulled out his grappling hook to take a shortcut, he found part of himself wondering why Owl didn’t simply deal with the man when he was dealing with his master. But it was not his place to question Owl; there was surely a reason. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure this is just a normal errand Owl's sending Wolf on so he can scope out Hirata again, Wolf's totally not coming back to the estates in flames.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf is returning to the estates after finishing Owl's errand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the dialogue has been changed to reflect that Wolf probably knows a little more of what's going on at this point, versus in game.

Wolf threw his grappling hook and pulled himself up onto a large tree branch. Almost to the top of this hill; the sun had set and he was almost back at the estates. The wind behind was almost pushing him forward. He jumped to a different branch then onto the hill and climbed the last few feet, looking out at the estates.

And saw fire. 

The estates were on fire.

What had happened? He was only gone a few days, the estates should have samurai protecting it, what happened?

The retainer’s quarters at the base of the hill only had some scattered smoke plumes. 

Wolf took a shaky breath and focused. If he got through the retainers quarters up to the main entrance he could find Kuro. Owl was watching him, he would be okay. Wolf looked down at the bridge and saw a figure walking along its length holding a torch. A bandit. How did bandits get past the samurai? Didn’t matter, they had.

Wolf jumped down, jumped to the road, and saw movement. Another shinobi? A man in dark clothing, wearing a tengu mask, breathing heavily.

“You’re… the Son of... Owl.” Wolf smelled blood; he was pressing a hand to his side.

“What happened?” Nothing he could do to help.

“Thieves… at Hirata estate… Samurai were called out... to help Ashina… You must, hurry… The Divine Heir… they came for him.” He let out a little groan and sagged to one side. Wolf was already looking at the bridge. It looked like one of the main buildings in the estates hadn’t been burned yet, but the main residential buildings were burning. He needed to hurry.

Three bandits on the bridge, none of them heard him and the second one didn’t notice his fellow fall. The third one tried to lunge with a torch and didn’t recover from Wolf kicking it into the ground. One bandit in front of the gate with dogs, but Wolf knew how to take dogs out quickly and the man was too surprised to see his dogs collapse to successfully defend himself. Over the gate, onto the main path, one patrolling and now dead, cut down the two ahead and-

-pain. Arrowhead grazed his leg. Bandit behind them, had been hiding in the corner, struggling to nock a new arrow before Wolf cut him down too. 

The gate was locked, and it was too high to jump and too smooth to grapple or climb over. He could go through the retainer’s quarters. 

More bandits here. Digging through one of the buildings. Wolf threw a loose chunk of a rooftop at one, crept away, waited for him to get further out from the others, killed him. Two left in the courtyard, one had stolen armor from a fallen guard or the storehouses. They were facing away from each other; Wolf killed the armored bandit, blocked the other’s first swing, blocked the second, stabbed him when he was thrown off. Sound in the burning ruins of the building; one more. Also wearing stolen armor. Also fell without realizing Wolf was there.

Wolf realized at this point he was trying to focus on what he was doing more than his goal, but he couldn’t think about that right now. He could think about the next step in clearing this route so he could get Kuro out safely, not about what would happen once he did that. Were Tatsuo or Asami alive? Was Inosuke? Owl was probably fine and protecting Kuro but he wouldn’t be protecting anyone else if it was inconvenient. 

Wolf bit his lip and focused. If he let himself worry about the future he wouldn’t make it there. He jumped the dividing wall into the bigger residential area.

Two dogs. Easy to kill quietly. One man, patrolling, and an archer on the rooftop. The patroller was easy to kill when he went to investigate where his dogs went. The archer never noticed the shuriken until it was too late, and no one else was sober enough to see him fall. Still several bandits around a fire on the far end. Wolf started to creep around a corner, and found one bandit dead drunk, which worried him. How long had they been here, if they had time for at least one of them to stop fighting and apparently drink til his body gave out? The man died without waking back up. A companion, almost as drunk but still standing on the other side of the building, was just starting to wobble back to the fire when Wolf slit his throat.

Three left. One, too drunk to stand. Two talking about whatever they had stolen to get this fire going as well as it was. His leg twinged before he could attack, and instead he crept to the smaller building behind them to check the stairway up. 

Another bandit, and a dog. Someone further up the stairs, too. They all startled to a shuriken taking out the dog- Wolf would have to stop and grab the ones he’d used here, he was starting to run low- and the bandit guarding the stairs never saw him until it was too late. Two of the three around the fire did, but alcohol had dulled their reactions and they fell quickly. The last one only reacted when one of them fell on top of him, and it wasn’t for long.

The bandit at the top of the stairs hadn’t heard him, so Wolf grabbed the shuriken he’d thrown and paused a moment to listen; but there was just the sound of the fire. Something was off at the building he was staring into, there were piles of clothing- except that one had a head and they weren’t piles of clothing, they were bodies. No one he recognized, except that they wore Hirata’s colors. He shook his head and sprinted up the stairway, surprising the bandit guarding it and overwhelming him.

Here was a samurai, an older man, trying to hold a wound closed. 

“Those...worthless bastards…” He wouldn’t be here long, if Wolf was any judge, but he might be able to tell Wolf what happened, what had gone wrong.

“Hello?”

“You are… the young lord’s shinobi… if I’m not mistaken… take the shinobi axe… from the temple… And… split…. their skulls wide open… please…” 

“What happened?” The samurai made a gurgling noise and fell before he could answer; Wolf knew better than to assume he had just passed out. Frowning, he looked around the road from this side path. One bandit on the road to the left, blocking him getting to the closed door. Two to the right, in front of a gate blocking the path to another area of the retainer’s quarters. The one on the left wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know he was not alone until his throat was slit. 

Wolf unbarricaded and opened the door; it would be better to have a fast escape route. He heard sound as he started back towards the other two bandits, and climbed a wall to check; two more, arguing about pillaging the temple the samurai had told him held an axe. They mentioned someone called Lord Juzou; that was probably the bandit leader. Wolf had never been fond of axes, and chose to ignore it, but jumped and killed the bandit who seemed to be in charge and used his fellow’s startled jump back as an opening to kill him too. Sound; there was a third one on the other side of the gate, who just saw him; he got out half a yell before he fell, too. 

The courtyard on the other side of the road held gamefowl; from the sound, they had probably gotten loose. They’d crow if they saw anyone, so Wolf decided to leave them. He climbed the wall to check- saw several clucking around, the building here trashed like the others and the gamefowl walking free- then saw movement to his right. Someone was in the garden next to a small building Wolf had never gone inside to investigate. He jumped down and crept closer, but this one heard him and turned around. He was the first person Wolf had seen here who wasn’t holding a weapon.

“Hey, good sir, are you a looter too?” He sounded happy, right until he actually saw Wolf’s expression and the rest of his face went pale as he fought to hold onto the smile. 

“Good sir, you look like… a shinobi, I think. Are you looking for something? Well, in any case, I found this place first, so… you could go look... somewhere else.” He lost the fight to show a happy facade for a moment; he must have seen Wolf’s hand start to tighten on his sword as he debated killing this one, too, unarmed or not. The man started babbling suddenly, in case that would turn away this shinobi’s wrath.

“Oh, by the way, while I was on my way here I saw a three-story pagoda on the top of some cliff. It was a fine pagoda- really fine. I bet there’s some kind of treasure kept in there. Gotta be. That’s what I think, at least.” He was starting to press himself into the building behind him; Wolf was glaring, but decided this one, who’s only interest was looting, was probably not part of the main force attacking the estates. And while he’d rather wipe out all the bandits here, and there was no doubt that this man was also a criminal, he remembered that as he had been given his sword, Tatsuo had mentioned its name served to remind the wielder that while he would need to kill, mercy was important, too. Slaughtering a non combatant for essentially no reason left a bad taste in Wolf’s mouth. He turned and climbed the wall, to check on the other two bandits on the road.

Anayama breathed a sigh of relief when the shinobi turned. He had watched his life flash before his eyes and realized a lot of it was good grounds for the man to run him through without a second thought; presumably he’d been spared because he wasn’t carrying a sword today, having joined the bandits in the estates well after most of them were drunk, so he could loot the place peacefully. 

“Maybe it’s time to become a merchant. No one kills merchants,” he muttered, then turned back to the building he had been trying to open. Merchants still needed wares.

“Hey! Open up! Open up or else!” This was the first residential area Wolf had seen that hadn’t been pilfered; the door was probably barricaded. He recognized it as where the retainer’s doctor lived; Kuro had no need of her, so Wolf hadn’t interacted with her at all. She also did not tolerate people trying to do their jobs when they were hurt, according to Insuke, and so Wolf had decided to consciously avoid her. 

“I can hear you whispering in there! If you don’t surrender peaceably now, you’re gonna regret it later! Hey! Can you hear me? He-Ugh” He was so focused on the door neither of them noticed Wolf jump down from the wall and pull the man into a position to run him through, then let the body drop, then dodged away from the other one’s torch and killed him as well. 

Wolf jumped over the wall here to check on whatever retainers were here. He told himself there was a chance Kuro was hidden here and he wasn’t delaying his job by checking on them and hurried on before his brain could call him out on the lie. 

The doctor didn’t answer when he walked over to the door, but he heard her talking to someone. 

“Please, try not to move. It will make your wounds worse.”

“No, I must go. There is a shinobi hunter amongst the bandits. He’s highly skilled. If I don’t face him-” A pained groan. This sounded like one of the older samurai, not specifically assigned to Kuro but several of them liked to keep an eye on him. “When his shinobi gets back- that hunter- uggh.”

“I forbid it! You’re in no condition…” Wolf heard her walk further away from the door but nodded to himself. A shinobi hunter? They tended to use long spears to keep their opponents away, but he knew how to deal with that now that he was warned. Part of him wondered what an expensive shinobi hunter from a monastery was doing with a pack of bandits, but he wanted to check the other buildings in here. The one right behind the doctor’s building was closest.

“Are you alright?” He kept his voice quiet, but he could see the light flickering as people moved around, and one of them came up to the door.

“You. You’re the young master’s shinobi.” One of the retainers who helped run the estate. Wolf had never picked up on his name; he’d been more standoffish and had avoided Wolf.

“Yes.” 

“What good are you? You were nowhere to be seen when things went south. Wait. tell me you didn’t lead them here yourself. The timing of their attack was perfect, right after the young samurai left. They wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.” Wolf heard other whispered voices inside; a couple agreeing with the man, several trying to calm him down or arguing. The retainer didn’t take any notice, talking himself into his viewpoint. “Yes, it had to be you. I hope you die, traitor!” There was nothing Wolf could say to that, so he didn’t. They sounded alive in there, and if the man hadn’t been told Wolf was gone for a few days Wolf wouldn’t be able to talk him around now. It would lose too much time. 

One more building to check. He braced himself for more negativity as he rapped on the door quietly.

“W-who are you?” 

“I’m not a thief.” That was probably the important thing to start with.

“Oh, you’re the young lord’s! Oh thank goodness.” he recognized the voice of the servant who brought him and Inosuke breakfast. 

“Honorable shinobi, those filthy bandits are after the young lord. They climbed the hill and set the estates on fire. I don’t know how the young lord could escape. He must still be in the estate. Please rescue the young lord, shinobi. Here- I entrust this to you, I pray it is of some help.” She managed to pass a small packet through the slats on the window.

“Thank you.” It held a powder that helped burns. With how the estates proper looked it would be helpful.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making my way through... the burning rubble of Hirata Estate

There was another bandit on the staircase leading to the bamboo thicket that separated the retainer’s quarters from the estates proper. Wolf saw two more at the top and frowned; they had shields, which was a problem. He stayed still for a moment, then threw a loose rock at the patrolling bandit. Hopefully the two at the top weren’t paying attention. 

The bandit turned and walked towards the base of the hill, peering around, but didn’t see Wolf. And still didn’t see Wolf when he crept up and slit the man’s throat, backing off when one of the shield bandits noticed the torch go out suddenly and said something to his buddy before walking down the stairs. 

Apparently this was not a cause for concern, because the man turned around, exposing his back to Wolf’s lunge. The final bandit did see this, but wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Wolf sprinting past him, grapple ready, to pull himself onto the crooked tree branch overhanging the bridge, and was looking around wildly. He turned back to the stairway for a moment, but that was all Wolf needed to drop back to the bridge and sprint over to kill him.

Wolf looked across the river as he let the body fall. He could go through the escape route, and get into the estates quickly. As he debated, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. There was someone patrolling this area. Wolf pulled himself back onto the tree branch, then after a moment grappled up to the lookout tower’s roof to see the area more clearly. He couldn’t use the escape route, not with bandits around; they might follow him.

The man pacing the area must be the shinobi hunter; he was the first bandit in more than scavenged armor and a fundoshi. Wolf knew shinobi hunters tended to be monks and this man looked it, though not from a temple in the area; he wore blue and white instead of orange. He was also carrying a spear longer than he was tall but Wolf was forewarned and knew how to deal with that. 

The bigger issue was the bandit wandering around and the two next to the small storage building. One of them had a bow. Wolf thought for a moment, then carefully lowered himself to the ground and crouched in the flower bushes that lined this road. He grabbed the patrolling bandit and slit his throat when he got close enough.

No one noticed. The hunter was facing the other way, the other two were talking. Wolf started to creep closer to the hunter when he saw the other bowman, standing almost in the bushes as well, waiting. The moment the hunter’s patrol pointed him in the other direction, this one’s throat was slit and the body dragged into the bushes.

Unfortunately the sound alerted the shinobi hunter, and he turned back, pacing over to where the man had been, snapping at the other two bandits to pay attention. Wolf paused, watching, as the man walked right over to where he had dropped the bandit’s body, then lunged forward to run the shinobi hunter through.

The other two bandits saw him now, so he sprinted up the steps and focused first on the axeman, dodging his wild swing and nearly decapitating him in one fluid motion before parrying two hits from the final bandit. The man had no sense of swordsmanship and left himself open enough Wolf was able to run him through in the armor’s opening under his armpit.

Someone was running. Wolf turned and dodged enough to only get another cut on his already injured leg as the shinobi hunter, bleeding and angry, tried to get into position to run him through. He lunged; Wolf stepped on the spear to trap it, listening to the hunter’s ragged, wet breathing. The man was not prepared for it and Wolf dodged around him and stabbed him again, then watched the man collapse and leaned down to slit his throat in case he got up again.

_ Almost there _ he started up the bamboo thicket path then paused, seeing the light further up the path, and climbed onto a ledge to the left. Two bandits patrolling, one with a torch, a bowman following a few steps back. The bowman wouldn’t be able to reach his sword in time; Wolf leapt down and half decapitated the first bandit, before turning- the bowman had jumped back in shock, hadn’t started yelling yet- and broke his bow in one hit, then killed him. 

Wolf looked up the slope and decided not to follow the path. The final incline had always looked like a good place for an ambush, especially with the bandits patrolling down here, and he wasn’t willing to risk getting killed this close to the estates.

He climbed back onto the ledge and looked up at the final bridge into the estates and frowned. There was a hulking brute of a man standing at the far end, probably with more bandits flanking him. He looked at the cliffside further along and completely froze when he realized there were two bandits there.

Two bandits who, like most of the others, were not paying attention to their surroundings.

He threw the grappling hook and caught a protruding root, letting himself swing under it, and climbed up quietly, listening. He remembered last minute about his eyes; there wasn’t a lightsource here to disguise them. He’d have to just swing up and kill the bandits quickly. 

The one who had stolen some armor wasn’t facing him and had his throat slit for his troubles. The other one tried to get to his feet, but tripped and was killed just as quickly and quietly. Wolf looked around the clearing, knowing at any moment one of them could notice the glow and go to investigate. Or just fire a few arrows at him, and deflecting those would announce his presence.

One man on a small incline, watching the hill. Acting nervous, he probably was wondering where the patrolling pair was. One more, waiting on the incline. And judging by the shadows moving at least two more at the top. Wolf ran at and up the wall, grabbed the top, and edged over until he was under one of the two at the top. The man did not notice him. 

The other bandits at the top did notice his groan and the body falling past Wolf as he lunged up and ran the man through, then pulled himself onto the top of the hill. 

There were two bowmen up here, one further back; the first went down quickly, the second shot at him- he felt the arrowhead like a punch but there wasn’t the sharp pain of it getting past his armor- and then the second fell as well. He heard footsteps, and turned as he cut the shaft off, out of his way. 

The bandit who had been on the steps had finally noticed him and was charging up them. Wolf dodged the torch, parried his sword, then ran him through and hurriedly deflected an arrow from the only person left in the would-be ambush as he ran down towards the man.

This was the first bandit that seemed to think he had a better nature to appeal to.

“No, please, I have-” Wolf had stabbed him before he could finish his plea. He couldn’t find it in himself to be worried about whatever the man had been about to name; not with an arrowhead stuck in his armor.

Wolf climbed back up the hill and looked at the brute and his entourage. The brute apparently was the most observant person in the bandits’ entire group, because he started walking down the bridge, acting like he had seen something, and ignoring the other bandits trying to call him back. Wolf darted back and grabbed the top of the wall, holding on as he swung himself out of sight, and waited. His eyes had probably given him away, but now that he was below the road hopefully the man would lose interest.

He listened as the man shuffled around, looking for the glow he had seen, then turned and started to walk away. He pulled himself back up, then ran to catch up with the man and jumped onto his back and stabbed him through the throat before he could react. 

One bandit noticed their big man fall, and might have seen Wolf; he had a bow and started approaching, but Wolf had seen the other two had shields and instead leapt off the side of the path and grappled to a tree root next to the far side of the bridge. The first man went down without a sound, the second started to turn but Wolf used a poorly angled shield to jump over and stab him in the back before he could register what had happened. 

The man’s shield, still propped up, shuddered; the bowman who had started to walk away had tried to shoot him and was fumbling for another arrow, then groaned when Wolf lunged forward and killed him. 

_ Movement _ was there someone at the pagoda? Wolf focused on it; but now he wasn’t sure. The one bandit had mentioned it, there may have been more there. He hesitated for a moment, then decided it was more important to get to Kuro than go chasing after something he may not have seen. He turned and ran through the entryway to the front of the estates.

They were completely engulfed; there was no way through and the heat already made him uncomfortable. 

And then he saw Owl, leaning against a rock, panting for breath and covered in blood.  _ He was supposed to be watching Kuro _ this was his father, the man who had taken him off a battlefield when he was barely surviving and saved him and Wolf was a little surprised that he was more concerned with his charge. He knelt next to Owl, looking for the injury he seemed to be holding shut, when the older shinobi began speaking.

“It’s you. I’m afraid I… made a bit of a blunder. Perhaps… the years have finally caught up with me. Ugh. Don’t bother tending my wounds, no point, it’s too late.” This was closer to his normal orders and Wolf stopped reaching for the hand pressed against his abdomen. “Wolf. You must… take this.” He offered a slightly bloody key Wolf had only seen once, when Lord Hirata had shown him around the estates. 

“This-”

“The key to the secret temple… in the estate mansion. That’s where I sent him to hide… the Divine... Heir. Going through the front is not an option… you’ll never get past the fire.” Where had Wolf heard that title before? Only a little part of him was concerned as most of him was planning his new route in.

“Yes, sir. The cliffs outside here lead to the escape route from the mansion.”

“Good. Find it. Some of them… went to the cemetery there, I heard them. That’s your way in.” Of course some of them were there already. That bothered Wolf; it was like they had known the layout of the estates.

“Understood.”

“Wolf. Never forget the Iron Code. The master is absolute! Protect... your master... with your life…” He started coughing, leaning into one hand to cover it, then collapsed. 

“...Father?” No response. Wolf stared in shock for a minute; Owl had always been there, and despite everything, having to suddenly adapt to an Owl shaped hole in his world view was staggering. He found the part of himself still thinking wondering who could have won a fight against Owl; the only person he knew who had ever come close was Butterfly, but she hadn’t been around his compound for a few years.

_ I’m losing time _ Wolf shook himself and grabbed his grappling hook. He could get onto the lookout tower here and use the small shrines along the river to get to the cemetery. He would have to process this later; right now, he had to get to Kuro. He realized as he pulled himself up onto the tower that Takeru’s page had referred to Kuro as the Divine Heir as well.

Owl waited until he couldn’t hear Wolf moving around to look up, shaking the blood-other people’s blood- off his hand. Butterfly was trying to establish an oath with Kuro and he’d offered to remove Wolf from the picture; when Wolf showed up she’d either think he had betrayed her or Wolf had killed him. 

Hopefully Wolf would be able to weaken her enough Owl could kill her easily and claim the Dragon’s Blood for himself from a grateful child who was still too shaken to question what had happened, but he would have to wait here for a few minutes first. Masanaga was supposed to show up soon to check on the progress of the raid. The ministry had just been told this was a good opportunity to remove one of Ashina’s more powerful retainers and pave the way to claim the land; they didn’t need to know Owl’s other motives. 

He shook his head, looking in the direction Wolf had taken off in.  _ He could have been a good shinobi. _ Pity, one way or another, he would die tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter, but I wanted the Butterfly fight to all be in one piece and this was just. Massive otherwise. (I aim for being able to read a chapter in like, half an hour to an hour, ish? But it's me and I read fast) (edited to add like, forty minutes later, Butterfly is actually week after next and this is a normalish chapter. Next week is shorter so I can do Butterfly/aftermath all together)
> 
> (Fundoshi is underwear btw)


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The run-up to Butterfly

Wolf landed lightly next to the building at the top of this path. He crept around, listening, and saw a bandit, looking bored, holding a torch aloft. He glanced around and listened; it sounded like there were more people up ahead. The bandits had already found the escape route and he felt his stomach clench. How many people had tried to run this way and been killed?

There was a small path and a clearing off to his left that led to the retainer’s quarters, but Tatsuo had said it was fairly disused so he ignored it. He could sneak past this bandit to check on it, but he would just be losing more time. That area sounded quiet, hopefully there wasn’t anyone present. Carefully he threw a rock near the bandit’s feet, then backed up along the building and around the corner. The man took a few steps towards his hiding place, torch lighting the way, then turned and dropped when Wolf slit his throat.

Wolf could not see how many of them were in this small area; he crept around the border of the clearing, moving towards the far corner so he could hopefully have a clear view of the escape route’s entrance. 

He almost didn’t see the archer in the corner, but the man definitely did not see him, either.

One of the two men in front of the escape route heard the archer drop, though, and started looking around. He missed Wolf circle around and kill his companion as he went to check on the archer, then collapsed as Wolf killed him. Outer area now clear, Wolf crept towards the voices he could hear in the tunnel. Two bandits there, talking about the fire. They were waiting in case anyone tried to escape; their orders were to kill anyone who came through the tunnel. The first one never knew he was there; the second one blocked three hits before Wolf broke his posture and ran him through. 

Wolf started to hurry up the tunnel and missed the bandit hiding in an alcove; he got a cut on one side, through his armor, before dodging the man’s wild thrust with his torch. He was not a match for Wolf’s swordsmanship and fell soon enough, but Wolf had to lean against the tunnel wall for a moment to breathe and berate himself for not paying attention. While he was stopped his already injured leg began reminding him that it, too, had been cut twice recently, and Wolf had to grit his teeth and start moving again, more cautiously. 

No one else was waiting in the tunnel; leg burning, Wolf was able to jump up the walls and emerge in the burning estates, in the mess of buildings across the pond from the Hirata’s home. He glanced around to see no bandits, and heard nothing except the fire; so he headed towards the pond. There was too much fire on the rooftops on this side to grapple up, but there was an archer pacing along between the building and the estate’s wall who tried and failed to get an alarm call out before Wolf killed him. There was a larger group of bandits all clustered together in front of the tutoring buildings, but the fire had not spread to this side of the roof, so Wolf grappled up hurriedly before he could be spotted. 

Five of them, but Wolf knew he couldn’t take more than two fighters at a time. Lucky him, the one in charge seemed to finish giving orders and sent them off, two in either direction. He himself did not notice Wolf jump off the roof once he judged the groups far enough away, and barely had time for a strangled yell before Wolf stopped his voice permanently. One of the two walking towards the pond heard him, but the pair walking away from the pond did not; one in armor, and an archer. The armored bandit never heard Wolf run up. The archer jumped as the body fell and fumbled getting an arrow nocked as Wolf ran him through. 

The other pair had run over by now, shouting; Wolf tried backing up as he parried two swords at once, knowing he couldn’t grapple up to the rooftop if they would stab him the moment he turned his back. Instead, he pushed back as they tried to break his guard, throwing them off just enough so he could lean down and grab a handful of loose dirt around the plants here and throw it into the taller bandit’s eyes. He took out the shorter bandit quickly, then killed the one still trying to get sand out of his eyes, then had to bite down on a yell when he was hit with an arrow. Again, his armor stopped the arrowhead from doing more than leaving a serious bruise, but he had missed another bandit; now he saw the archer hurrying to nock a new arrow, up against a rock formation on the edge of the pond. 

He did not succeed; none of the archers had managed to scavenge armor, it seemed, and were not a match for Wolf. The bandit running out of the tutoring buildings, wearing stolen Hirata armor and wielding a crude axe might be though. Trying to parry that axe was asking to break Kusabimaru; Wolf dodged backwards as he swung, instead, then surged forward to neatly behead the man as he tried frantically to recover from an over enthusiastic swing. He hadn’t found anything that would protect his neck, and now that was no longer necessary. 

Wolf froze, listening; no one alive on this side of the pond, unless they were holding very still. He felt his side and his leg burn and quickly checked the tutoring building anyway; no bandits and no bodies, which was hopeful. Other than the handful of bodies in the retainers’ quarters, he had not seen a lot of bodies around the estates and hoped most of the Hirata’s people had made it out.

He made his way around the pond and saw a huge man sitting in the entryway to the entrance hall. There were several bandits around him. He recognized Gensai Nogami, crouching in the reeds, watching the group, but if the man had not acted yet Wolf doubted he would. Instead Wolf crept around the one wing of the building that nearly reached the pond. One bandit, leaning on the far doorway, exactly as alert as most every other bandit, died probably instantly. A second, on the other side, tried to get a yell out but blocking two of Wolf’s swings took most of his attention and failing to block the third made talking again impossible. No one seemed to have noticed him, except for Gensai, who had turned and was staring into the covered walkway. Wolf nodded, not caring if the man noticed or not, and moved forward. 

Just five around the big man; he paused in the walkway when two of them said something and started towards the pond. The man must have been Juzou, Wolf decided. He got up, an odachi slung across his shoulders, and walked into the open area in front of the pond. Wolf used his movement to kill one of the shield bearing bandits, then dart around the man who turned to see and kill the other; by the time the final bandit turned around again he already had to block Wolf’s sword, and failed. 

Wolf turned towards the pond to see Juzou sauntering towards something; Gensai had probably gotten in over his head. Wolf sprinted forward and jumped, driving his sword into the man’s neck and leaping clear. He heard Gensai start shouting as he landed and backed away, watching Juzou stagger and then glare at him, then went flying backwards as Juzou used a flat hand and all of his body weight to hit Wolf in the center of his chest. 

That was a sumo move, Wolf was sure, which made sense given the man’s size; he rolled to his feet and jumped to one side as Juzou tried again. That was enough for the man to switch to his odachi. Wolf made a quick decision and jumped away from the inelegant swing rather than try and block it. Between the man’s size and whatever was coating his sword blade, Wolf would rather not take the chance of having his sword break or being sliced. 

Juzou stumbled forward suddenly; Gensai had finished with the two bandits he had lured away and was helping apparently. Wolf saw him back away as Juzou turned, putting the energy and his weight into a swing that left a nasty cut on Gensai’s leg. The turned back was an invitation to stab him again, and then Wolf jumped away when he tried another wide, sweeping cut. 

Juzou backed away from the two, reaching for a gourd full of something foul Wolf could smell from this distance, but was forced to drop as both shinobi and samurai lunged as one; he barely managed to parry both hits, then chose to try and finish Gensai first. Wolf stabbed him a final time through a recent looking cut on his chest and only relaxed when the man fell and did not get up. He turned to Gensai, who had sheathed his sword and was putting pressure on the cut on his leg. 

“You did well to come this far. For a rogue, you are a worthy shinobi. Inosuke is with the young lord, so he should be okay, but I am not sure how many bandits are inside. Owl said he would deal with the drunkard, but I have not seen him since he left.”

“Owl fell at the entrance to the estates.” Part of him still refused to believe that, but he couldn’t listen to that voice until Kuro was safe.

“Oh. I am-” Wolf waved him off. 

“Lord Kuro is in the hidden temple?”

“Yes. Go on ahead. I will only slow you down.” Wolf was leaving before Gensai finished his sentence. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter so I could do Butterfly and aftermath all together.
> 
> Yes I did make Gensai more useful than he is in-game.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Butterfly and the aftermath

Inside the main hall Wolf froze. He hadn’t seen any younger samurai here; the shinobi at the entrance had said Ashina had called them to battle. So the bodies littering the floor were the older men who had remained to guard the Hiratas. For a moment he wondered if Lord Tatsuo was on the floor here somewhere, then shook his head. He needed to focus. And as he focused, he heard someone over to the left. 

Two someones, two looters, he found out as he got closer. But only one found out he was present, and did not live with the knowledge very long. Now he heard a new sound; someone was crying. 

Suzu Nogami was huddled on the floor, crying; But she looked up quickly when Wolf approached. 

“The young lord’s... I saw a dreadful vision. It was pouring out! More and more, it wouldn't stop! It wouldn't stop! The young master- Lord Kuro is deep in the mansion. My son Inosuke is with him, so he's probably fine, but, but you never know. The young master might need you, rogue shinobi. Go to him, will you?” Wolf nodded, rather than interrogate her and lose more time. 

She was right next to the walkway to the room hiding the temple. Wolf started hurrying, then frowned and slowed down as he realized his leg and side did still hurt, now that the adrenaline from fighting Juzou was wearing off. 

That slow down saved him from an arrow through an eye; the bandit hiding at the end of the corridor hadn’t expected it and hadn’t adjusted his shot. He only lasted a moment. There was another body in this antechamber- except no, it wasn’t, not yet, it was still breathing and Wolf realized it was Inosuke. He was leaning against the doorframe, panting, and as Wolf looked closer someone had tried to blind him, and very well may have succeeded; both eyelids were closed and he was still bleeding from the cuts.

“Inosuke?” Kuro was not here; Wolf had to focus.

“You-Wolf. I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Dreadful illusion techniques... Without a snap seed, it cannot be overcome.”

“Lord Kuro is in the temple?”

“Yes.”

“Then I must.” Inosuke nodded weakly, but pulled something out of a pouch on his side.

“Take this. It's not much... but it's what I have. I tried my best to be his guardian, but look at me now. I fear the Hirata line is finished, there has been no word of either Lord or Lady. I must save my mother at the very least…” Inosuke sagged; Wolf, holding the fumewort seed he had been given, caught him, and laid him down more carefully out of the walkway. He might be able to do something once Kuro was safe.

Illusion techniques. They were hard to learn, difficult to master. Butterfly had been very good at them, and he did not know anyone else who used them. Butterfly was also one of the few people who could reliably win in a spar against Owl. Wolf did not like how this was shaping up; how could a group of bandits convince her to help?

Wolf walked into the otherwise untouched room. He knew the upraised tatami in the center could be shifted aside to reveal the passage down to the hidden temple. He glanced around, frowning. This room may have looked untouched but he could feel the heat from the fires almost radiating through the floor. 

He knelt, shoved the tatami to one side, and ran down the tunnel. The door at the end was locked; but he had the key from Owl. He shoved it open- the roof was on fire here, little embers floating down, the rafters starting to buckle, for a moment he wanted to find Tatsuo and tell him this was not the safe haven he had believed it to be- and focused on the little figure in white in the center of the room. They must have attacked while the estates were asleep; he was still in his sleeping things, the little bell chiming at his side.

Kuro was walking slowly towards him; Wolf heard his voice, asking for his parents. Then-

“The butterflies… everyone is gone.” This was just as bad as he thought it was. Hopefully Wolf could get Kuro out before she showed up, if she wasn’t in here already.

“My lord!” Kuro’s eyelids were fluttering a little; he kept looking like he would fall over rather than keep walking. “Illusion techniques,” Wolf muttered to himself, feeling sick now. She had demonstrated this for him before; she must have been here somewhere. Rather than use the snap seed for Kuro he started clapping, trying to make a loud enough noise clapping to wake him up, then caught him as he swayed too far to one side.

“It’s been a long time… Son of Owl.” Wolf stood up, pulling Kuro behind him. Butterfly was walking down the center of the burning temple, unconcerned as always. 

“Butterfly.” Had Owl known this was who cut him down? He must not have, or he would have warned Wolf, wouldn’t he? Wolf had to focus. This was not safe for Kuro. “Go.” He shouldn’t be giving commands to his lord but he needed Kuro in the relative safety of upstairs. Kuro started saying something, asking who this was, but Wolf glanced over and told him “Do what must be done,” both to tell Kuro he needed to get himself to safety, and to remind himself that no matter what Butterfly had been growing up, now she was a threat. Wolf pulled Kusabimaru into a better position to draw it, and that more than anything seemed to get Kuro to realize he needed to leave.    


Kuro ran as Wolf drew his sword. Butterfly pulled her kunai out of their pouch. 

“Now then, son of Owl. Shall we dance?” He dodged to the side as she threw the kunai at him.

“Butterfly, why?” He hadn’t thought she had known about his station at the estates; Owl hadn’t called her in as often as Wolf got older. She may have been contracted by someone for this, which was understandable, and Wolf hoped she would tell him.

“...why indeed?” But not telling him was more like her. Wolf blocked a kunai, then a kick, as she continued. “You’ll die if you doubt yourself, boy.” He blocked another kick, and she leapt up, once, twice; Wolf could barely see the strings she had strung across the pillars, but that was just like her and her teachings. Get there first, and make sure you have something in place to surprise your enemy. He dived out of the way as she jumped down, angling to flip him over and stab him in the back. She had managed it a few times, when he was young, and for a moment he could hear Owl yelling at her for injuring him that severely. Something in the back of his mind was worrying him; something was wrong about how she was fighting. 

She was not expecting him to thrust and knock her off balance, and barely managed to block his two follow up swings before trying to kick him. When he blocked that, she tried to jump onto one of the strings, only for him to hit her with a shuriken and knock her to the ground. She rolled up to her feet, gave a quiet grunt when Wolf stabbed her through the chest, then he frowned when her body dissolved. He turned quickly, still on guard, looking for the real Butterfly. He heard her start laughing and turned towards the back of the room.

“Impressive, boy.” She was reclining on top of the Buddha statue. As he ran towards it, she got up and jumped to the ground. He had to block a kick almost immediately, then a lunge with her kunai; she jumped back to the strings to be out of his range, throwing some of her special kunai at him; these hummed as they flew, and he knew from experience they were coated in something she had refused to tell him about that would make him hallucinate for a few hours. He dodged, then shot forward as she jumped on the ground again. 

He wasn’t fast enough. He heard her call “Lose yourself in my illusions” and then there were a dozen child sized translucent figures scattered around, wielding what were probably farming implements. He ran towards the other side of the room rather than deal with them and her all at once; she couldn’t maintain that many illusions for long. For a fleeting moment he hoped this had removed the illusion magic on Kuro. 

She couldn’t maintain that many. He heard her snap, and the little figures dissolved into butterflies of light, high above them both; then Wolf saw them start flying towards him and sped up.

Each little swarm hit behind him as he ran, then there was Butterfly again, throwing kunai. She only had been able to focus on calling the illusions because she hadn’t been trying to stop him from running her through; Wolf would have to make sure that didn’t happen again. She went to jump back onto a string and was knocked down by a shuriken; Wolf was able to reach her as she got back on her feet and forced her to block his swings, then she tried to kick him again and all her foot met was his sword. Wolf watched her frown, lunge with the kunai- and kick him in the chest when he was trying to block the kunai. 

He backed off, trying to catch his breath, and felt the injuries on his left side make themselves known again. He forced himself to ignore it and hit her with a shuriken when she tried to jump onto another string. He could feel how light the shuriken pouch was; he wouldn’t be able to do that soon. He didn’t think he would need to, though; Butterfly hit hard and moved fast but wasn’t wearing armor. She rolled as she hit the ground but he was already there and now there was a lot of blood on the ground and she was clutching a nasy cut on one arm and Wolf lunged forward with a slice across her stomach, then vaulted over as she tried to stab him again and ran her through. 

“Butterfly… forgive me.” This was not her normal thing; she must have been contracted to kidnap Kuro. But he could not let that stop him from protecting his lord. He heard her quiet gasp as he pulled the sword out.

“You’ve… gotten stronger… Wolf…” and she collapsed. This body did not get back up, and did not dissolve. She was dead.

Wolf stared at the corpse for a moment; in one night he’d lost his foster father, one of his most prominent teachers, and apparently many of the people he was friendly with here at the estates. But it was what had to be done, to protect his master, whose safety was now above everything else. He had a job to do still; he turned and walked away, toward the passageway, to find Kuro.

The pillars were fully ablaze now; Wolf doubted the ceiling would last much longer. He heard something behind him, and turned to see the Buddha statue begin its collapse, sending a wave of dust and ashes towards him. He covered his face, half turning away, until it subsided, then looked back, to make sure it was due to the fire and not a new enemy.

Then let out a gasp as someone stabbed him through the back.

He looked down, through the pain, trying to grab the odachi sticking out of the front of his chest; the part of him not suddenly very concerned about the odachi was worried about Kuro, upstairs somewhere, and what this person was going to do.

He dropped to his knees, trying to breathe when that meant his chest was scraping against the sword, and it was removed just as suddenly as he had been stabbed; but that meant nothing was stopping him from bleeding out now, and Wolf collapsed. As his eyes started to close he saw the temple’s rafters finally give up and burning chunks of wood began falling around him, but all his brain could manage was  _ I have to get up, I have to get Kuro _ .

_ Pity _ . Owl wiped his odachi clean and walked over to check Butterfly’s body was not another illusion. Wolf had truly managed to kill her, sparing Owl that chore. He really could have been a fitting successor if not for how attached he got. Owl glanced up at the ceiling as it began to cave in and left, sparing a glance at Wolf’s body as he did. It was a pity he hadn’t been able to truly have a final duel with Wolf; the cub had really become a spectacular fighter, but Owl could ignore his wants for the sake of his plan. The lordling was somewhere upstairs, probably; he hadn’t seen the child on his way in. Wolf must have sent him away like he could have been hurt in the fight. Owl paced the building, wondering if Tatsuo had really shown him all the secret rooms here, then glanced outside, to where the sky was beginning to lighten, and scowled.

Ashina troops. Just one or two, the only ones foolhardy enough to get past the flames the rain hadn’t doused yet. He would have to leave, now. Isshin was not the kind of person to listen to excuses especially if there was a retainer alive somewhere who knew Wolf had been gone on his orders. The grandson who was going to take over, whatever his name was, probably wasn’t either. Owl would have to let his plans sit for a few years, until the suspicion was gone, then come up with a good lie to Kuro for the Heritage. Plan decided on, Owl vaulted the back wall of the estates and left, with only a moment’s regret that he had killed Wolf earlier than needed.

Kuro blinked a few times and realized he was fully awake again. He looked around wildly, expecting butterflies, but this was just the secret room in the entrance hall. Suzu was shivering nearby, but nodded to him as he stood up.

“What happened?”

“It was dreadful! It was-”

“I remember that. How are we in here?”

“You came out of the hidden temple and found me, and I brought you in here before anymore bandits could find us.”

“The temple… Wolf! Wolf came. Where is he?” Suzu probably shrugged but was shaking too hard for Kuro to easily tell, then wasn’t fast enough to stop Kuro going back through the door. No one was around, not that he could be hurt by them; Takeru’s page had been very clear about that. Kuro ran across the building to stop dead in the antechamber. 

Inosuke was collapsed to one side; blood and a still sluggishly bleeding cut decorated his face now. He did not answer to Kuro’s tentative call, and Kuro glanced between him and the open passageway for a moment before clenching his jaw and running down. He doubted he could do anything to help Inosuke now; and while his memories were fragmented, he remembered the old lady walking around in the temple after Owl had ushered them down and left to deal with the bandit leader. Inosuke had run after she cut him with kunai, then she had locked him in. 

Wolf had come down anyway and Kuro was sure he had fought the old woman. But now, Kuro looked around an unfamiliar scene. The temple was collapsing. He ran in, looking around wildly, hoping for a short figure in orange to appear between the flames, and instead spotted a hand sticking out from under a fallen piece of the roof.

It was Wolf. Now that Kuro could see him better he could see the blood on the ground. Wolf must have been injured fighting the old lady; Kuro realized he wasn’t sure if Wolf was moving. He pulled a chunk of the roof away- the fire didn’t burn, the splinters couldn’t find their way into his hands- and reached out for Wolf, trying to pull him out. Movement; from Wolf, his head turned slightly as Kuro grabbed his hand. It seemed like Kuro was focusing on small details right now, rather than the big picture of his shinobi bleeding to death in front of him. Wolf’s lips were blue; his fingernails were, as well, and the hand Kuro grabbed was cold.

“You fought bravely on my behalf. I cannot throw away such loyalty.” Kuro knew on some level he was talking himself into this, but he had one person who had seemingly appeared from nowhere and saved him, and was about to die because of it. He ignored a quiet voice in the back of his head, telling him everyone else who had tried to save him had died already. He felt Wolf try and close his hand around Kuro’s grasping one, then felt his grasp stop; panicking, Kuro told him the phrase Takeru’s page had passed on.

“Loyal Wolf, take my blood and live again.” He felt fatigued for a moment; then kept trying to push the roof out of the way, expecting Wolf to start helping when that took effect.

“Wolf?” Wolf was not getting up. He pushed the smaller pieces of the roof away and resumed trying to drag Wolf out, trying not to cry, talking to him, waiting for the response that would let him know he hadn’t been barely too late, that at least one person hadn’t died because of him, and getting nothing.

Wolf woke up, barely, every movement a chore, lightheaded and exhausted, and opened his eyes. More of the roof had fallen on him but- Kuro. Kuro was there, holding up a piece of roof he should not have been able to lift, looking terrified, but keeping his voice as level as he could. Wolf could not make out what he said; he heard every word but his brain refused to process any of it. Kuro grabbed his hand and Wolf tried to grasp it, tried to give what comfort he could; but darkness was welling back up and his eyes started to close again. He heard Kuro say something about blood as his eyes shut again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wolf is going to get up next week despite the major character death tag. Kuro doesn't know that (and it won't be just a week in-story)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone new came to the estates about twelve hours too late

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jinbaori is a cape, essentially. The cape with the Ashina flower on it Genichiro wears is his jinbaori (I think it's easier if I put the definitions things up here rather than at the bottom, yeah?)

Genichiro Ashina was fidgeting so much on the way back to the Hirata Estates that Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa, his most trusted retainer, turned in his seat and frowned at him. 

“That was too easy.” Genichiro knew what he was going to ask. “The Interior Ministry has more than enough resources to cause us problems but that seemed more like a distraction then them actually trying to seize those villages. Home is far enough away it’s probably fine, but Hirata-”

“Tatsuo left plenty of samurai to take care of Hirata, Genichiro.”

“Plenty of older samurai. I wish he’d let me balance that more-”

“I think you’re worrying too much-”

“Smoke.” Genichiro kicked his horse into a gallop; but he was not the first person to see the smoke plume, now that they were coming out of the mountains. The Hirata samurai that he had asked Tatsuo if he could have help were running to keep up as he dismounted next to the bridge and tied his horse to a railing, trusting Gyoubu to have someone watch the handful of horses present, and scanning the bridge.

There were a few bodies here, not totally cold yet but they had been dead a few hours. He looked up at the smoke; it was focused in the estates proper. He looked at a few of the samurai who had run in front of the main group. 

“You, and you, get a group and check the retainer’s quarters. Gyoubu, hold some people back here in case whoever did this is waiting in the forest for us to bring our guard down. You, get some people and come with me.” Gyoubu nodded and the other samurai hurried to their assigned jobs. Genichiro walked up towards the estates, sending a few faster soldiers ahead to check for any ambushes, feeling sick to his stomach. How many times had he walked up this route to visit his relatives, and now he was walking up it hoping he would find them at the other end like he always had. 

The soldiers he had sent ahead reappeared.

“No one we could see, but a lot of bodies. The samurai here were overwhelmed; it looks like a bandit group came through. Haven’t seen any living ones, though; a lot of bodies that aren’t cold yet.”

“Someone came through first.” Genichiro would have to hope whoever that was had gotten here in time. He clenched his jaw as he walked into the estates proper. The buildings were still smouldering; the rain had killed most of the fire, but not before it had eaten several of the buildings. He looked around, then sent smaller groups to check the other buildings as he went towards the entrance hall. 

Gensai Nogami, an older samurai who had grown up with Isshin, who Genichiro knew fairly well for him deciding to stay with the Hirata family when his younger brother was asked to guard Kuro, was dead in front of the pond. Someone had run him through. A massive hulk of a man was dead nearby; Genichiro had heard the gossip and knew him to be a sumo wrestler, thrown out in disgrace by his lord after he took to drinking too much. Genichiro walked into the entrance hall, looking at the samurai whose bodies littered the floor in here. None of them looked tall enough to be Tatsuo or Asami, but he knew better than to be relieved. He started walking to the right, to the rest of the building, as a few soldiers looked around this main area. 

Someone was breathing up ahead; he sped up, then swallowed hard to see that it was Inosuke Nogami, maimed, unconscious, in the antechamber. He waved a soldier over to help the man and looked ahead to see a tatami laying askew on the floor and a passage he hadn’t known was here exposed. 

He listened at the top of it; something down there was still burning. He walked down carefully, and looked out into what had been a decent sized room, now covered with smouldering debris, the light rain slowly putting out fires and soaking what was left.

And Kuro.

And Kuro, crying, drenched, trying to pull something out from under the wreckage.

Kuro turned to see him as he ran over and cried into his shoulder when he hugged his cousin. He had not let go of what he was holding onto; now Genichiro could see that it was a hand, connected to a man wearing orange he hadn’t seen before. Just from the blood on the ground here, Genichiro could tell he was dead. 

“Kuro, I’m here, it’s-” no, it’s not okay, even if Tatsuo and Asami were alive he doubted any of the other samurai left here were alive. The estates had still burned. “I’m here.” 

Kuro said something, indistinctly, still crying into his shoulder. He repeated himself when Genichiro shifted around. 

“He’s not getting up. He said I could keep someone alive if I needed to and I tried and Wolf’s not getting up.” Wolf must have been the body; he looked like he might have been a shinobi. 

“Lord Genichiro?” One of the Hirata samurai. He gave a relieved grin when he saw Kuro, then sombered up and shook his head. 

“Kuro?” He was still crying into Genichiro’s shoulder. Genichiro looked back at the samurai. “Salvage everything you can. We’ll find room for you all in Ashina until you can rebuild.” The samurai nodded and left; he must have been thinking that rebuilding was not going to happen, and Genichiro knew it wouldn’t, but he couldn’t say that, holding his crying cousin. He carefully undid his jinbaori and wrapped it around Kuro. 

“I need-”

“I can, Kuro.”

“I can’t just leave him here.” He was still holding onto the shinobi. Genichiro could see which pieces of the roof would be easier to move, and managed to shove them off to the side one handed; Kuro twisted, pulling on the man again, and started crying harder when the only reaction was the corpse to slide forward a little. He did finally let go of the hand, and Genichiro picked him up, still wrapped in the jinbaori over his sleeping things. 

“I can’t leave you here, Kuro. Will you come with me to Ashina?” He was still crying, but he managed a nod. Genichiro adjusted him so he could be crying into his shoulder again, and walked away from the temple.

  
  


The first thing Wolf remembered was  _ I have to get up, I have to get Kuro _ , and he pushed himself to his feet, and immediately collapsed back to his knees and hands when the pain hit him. It felt like he had been stabbed. A questing hand felt a hole in his armor, but no corresponding hole in his chest; a decent sized scar he did not remember having was where it should have been. He looked around to see the ruins of the hidden temple around him. 

Something was wrong, though. A few opportunistic plants had started sprouting in the floor, and others were encroaching into what had been the building. 

He walked up the staircase, looking around, and came out in an abandoned building. There were a handful of hastily dug mounds outside the main building, covered with a thin layer of snow; he stared at the wooden markers dully, waiting for his brain to wake up and tell him what that would mean.

_ Graves _ . He bowed his head and offered a short prayer, then resumed walking the ruined estates. 

No one else was here. No one living. He found a few bodies that looked like they had been hidden from whoever had come through and buried those in the graves, but not hidden from the wildlife. All he could do was offer a prayer. There was no trace of Kuro- no trace of any of the Hiratas here. He tried to remember what had happened, but his memory was coming up blank. Until he saw the pile of decaying bodies outside the estates proper, placed where they shouldn’t leak into the lake. Bandits.

_ Bandits attacked to kidnap Kuro _ that was what he was trying to remember. He looked around wildly; it was early winter, it must have been, between the light snow and the few colorful leaves left on the trees. He did not know what had happened to the fall; he remembered last seeing Kuro near the end of the summer, but he couldn’t conjure up the circumstances. The bandits must have taken Kuro. That was why the estates looked abandoned, Kuro had been taken. Was that where the samurai went? Looking for him? It didn’t matter.

He had to find Kuro. Kuro’s safety was his number one priority; it didn’t matter if anyone else was looking because  _ he _ had to find Kuro. The bandits had taken him, and it was his failure and his duty to find his lord. It looked like it had been a few months, which made this a lot harder, but he could ask if anyone had seen the bandits at Kensato, assuming there were still people there. He set off across the bridge as the sun started to set. 

The sun was fully set by the time he reached Kensato. He glanced around quietly; there were people here, at least, but everything was subdued. Standing in the outskirts he watched the handful of people in the square, clustered next to a fire. He started forward, to ask if they knew where the bandits went; one of them heard him, and turned, and shrieked. 

Wolf froze as the others turned and there were various gasps and yells, and then remembered that his eyes must be glowing. One of the group ran towards a different building, saying something about “driving it off” and Wolf berated himself for ruining his chance to get information as he turned and took off into the forest, following one of the trails. There were other villages, he remembered, further away; hopefully he could find one and ask there.

It took two days to find another village. There were no sign posts, no trail sign, nothing. At least he came in while it was light outside. He walked over to the closest stall owner to the random direction he had entered the village from. 

“Hello, good si-” The man breathed in quickly; Wolf was sure he looked terrible, but he was only here briefly.

“There was a bandit attack on the Hirata estates a few months ago. Does anyone know where the bandits went?” 

“Back south through the passes, probably, but Lord Genichiro said there weren’t many left-”

“Thank you.” Wolf left again. He had lost too much time already. He heard the man yelling something, asking if he needed help, as he left, but this was his job, his failure to let Kuro be kidnapped, and he would find his lord.

South was a very broad description, but there were only so many passes they could have taken through the mountains. He remembered Owl, showing him the passes on a map, explaining the pros and cons of each. He remembered- Owl- 

Wolf had to stop for a minute, leaning on a tree. Owl. Owl had died at the estates. He frowned, trying to remember  _ why _ Owl had been at the estates in the first place; but nothing came to mind. He took a breath and pushed himself back to his feet, heading south again. Owl was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it. Owl’s word had been, was, absolute- and it was to protect Kuro. Kuro was his master, and now he had no father to override Kuro’s safety. Wolf would find him. 

The passes south were probably another week away. Wolf checked that he still had his sword- still had Kuro’s sword- and frowned. Most of his armor was covered in a dark brown substance that was probably dried blood. That was probably why the stall owner had seemed scared, but Wolf knew it couldn’t possibly all be his. He would have died, bleeding out this much. More worryingly, he did not have Kusabimaru, hadn’t even noticed, but he knew he would have noticed if it had disappeared since he’d woken up. It must have been taken while he was unconscious. That was a problem; he needed a weapon. Blood forgotten, he checked his pouch and was relieved to find everything else; the grappling hook, the Buddha statue, even the sewing kit he had never taken out of the pouch. Just no sword. He’d have to be careful, then, and see if he could steal one, or scavenge it like he had long ago. 

He shook his head to focus and frowned again at the blood. He’d have to find a stream or something to wash as much of it off as possible, since he would need to get more information and having everyone he asked react like the stall owner would not help him. He paused and looked up; the sky had been threatening snow for two days. This was a bad time to get wet; he’d have to deal with it when he got to the main pass. He went to run a hand through his hair, thinking, and paused again; something felt wrong with the hair on his right side, but it was probably blood and he needed to get moving, so he ignored it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Genichiro has not gone off the deep end yet, right now he's just an upset relative coming by to the worst possible scenario.
> 
> Wolf is smart but it's not the kind of smart that lets you make connections between things or pick up on stuff or notice your sword is gone when you get up, it's just enough to make him good at fighting


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf is on the bandit's trail.
> 
> Kuro is... not where Wolf thinks he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haori is a coat; tabi are socks. The merchants Wolf stole from are probably Portuguese, they were coming to Japan to trade Chinese silks for metals around this time period.

There was a small village at the base of the largest pass. Wolf hoped this would be the one the bandits had taken; it was the easiest by far. He looked up at the pass and stopped. It was already full of snow. He glanced from it to the village. He had to find Kuro. He could not delay any more than he already had. 

But if he froze to death in the pass Kuro would be stuck with the bandits, waiting for rescue that wouldn’t come. He had to get through, but he had to be smart about it. 

The village. He did not like the idea of stealing from the villagers, but Kuro was his priority. He watched the village from his spot up in the forest; no one was out for longer than a few minutes, but it looked to him like there was a larger party present. Probably had gotten stuck here, if the pass had gotten snowed in suddenly. But he couldn’t learn anything else from out here; Wolf left the shelter of the trees and walked down into the village.

There was a party stranded here. Merchants, looking to trade silks for metal. They had barely made it through the pass and were resting here a few days before heading further north. Wolf didn’t even have to ask about the bandits; one of them was complaining loudly enough he heard their accented Japanese through the walls of the inn. The group had been accosted by a group of bandits, some still wearing stolen Hirata armor, two months before; as merchants, they traveled slowly, and it sounded to Wolf like they had been at a village not far on the other side of the pass at the time. The bandits had stolen a few packs of silk, but there hadn’t been enough of them to overwhelm the merchant’s guards. 

Wolf found an unlocked window leading to an empty room in the upstairs of the inn. He was hoping most of the inn was taken by the merchant group right now; if they were trading silks for metal they were probably wealthy enough and would not miss what he needed. 

A thicker haori, thicker tabi, a wooden contraption he recognized because it would keep his feet out of the snow. He froze, hearing footsteps walking upstairs. He grabbed one more piece of thick fabric without looking and slid out the window, closing it behind him. No one on the ground, no one in sight; he jumped down and hurried into the trees. His footsteps would be a dead giveaway if the merchant sent their guards after him; he would need to leave. He pulled on the winter clothing he had stolen and found that the final piece of fabric was oiled, and had a hood. 

It must have been some foreigner thing, but it was his now, and it would probably do a good job keeping off the snow. He hurried off towards the pass, carrying the wooden snowshoes until he got to something deeper than the few inches here.

He realized, as he left the village, he did not have food. And while he had been scavenging as he went, he didn’t like thinking about the time it would take him to stop and hunt something; the plants he had been eating were few and far between already, the rejects no one had found or eaten before fall. He paused, debating stashing his stolen clothing and going back into the village to hunt down a storehouse, hoping he wouldn’t be punished if caught if they didn’t know he had stolen other things. Then he glanced at his left arm and knew that was a false hope; the armor hid a set of bar tattoos from well before he met Owl. Thief’s tattoos. He had been marked once for stealing food; he’d either get tattoos on his forehead or lose a hand if he was caught again.

Of course, he probably wouldn’t be caught. 

Just as Wolf talked himself into it he heard the shouting. From the inn. The previous owner of his winter things had discovered them missing. 

No chance to raid the storehouse now; Wolf would have to hunt what he could. He turned and ran deeper into the forest, towards the pass. They’d have a decent chance of following him if they found his footprints, and he couldn’t find a stream to walk in to hide them, he’d get frostbite. He’d just have to be faster.

Three days later Wolf paused to listen, only halfway up the pass. The silk merchant had enough money to send soldiers after him for stealing a handful of clothing and snowshoes and Wolf no longer felt bad for stealing from him. They kept going through the forest on either side of the pass, and he’d been forced to hide three times, once for a full day when they kept coming back to the gnarled old tree he had found to have a decent sized depression he could curl up and hide in. 

But now he was hopefully further up than they were still willing to go. Especially with the snow starting again, leaving a thin layer over everything and blurring the few sets of footprints coming down from the pass.

Wolf decided that once he was deeper through the pass he would have to stop and find something to eat; if he was careful he might be able to have enough meals to last him getting through here. He still stuck to the trees on one side, but hoped the snow would conceal him from the village.

It only took a few hours the next day to find a pair of rabbits that would work. The cold would hopefully keep one body and the leftovers of the other preserved, and he was good at starting fires. He started looking for branches dry enough to use as kindling; while a fire at night would give him away to anyone close, if the merchant had sent guards out again, a fire in the daytime with how wet this wood was would be a smoke beacon to his location. 

He must have been eating more at the estates, but he could barely recall having been there; but he normally wouldn’t be this hungry from not eating for just a few days. He must have gotten used to eating more frequently like Owl had warned him not to, knowing there were times when a shinobi couldn’t spare the time to eat. Owl had known what Wolf could have faced better than any noble and Wolf wished he had listened more.

It took the better part of four days slowly making his way through the pass before Wolf could see it slope down into the rest of the country. He wasn’t sure if the snowshoes or the snow itself was what was slowing him down, or the fact that this new method of traveling was exhausting and he was finding himself forced to stop and sleep more frequently. 

There was a village on this side of the pass, too, and Wolf wondered if he should pass through wearing stolen clothing. If someone recognized him he would have the exact same thing to deal with as he had on the other side of the pass. He didn’t need to stop for food; beyond the rabbits, he’d found a pond with some fish in it and still had two left, but was trying to acclimate himself to not having a meal a day again, like he never should have stopped. And he knew the bandits had passed through this way, so there was no reason to stop here.

He gave the village a wide enough berth that even if someone was watching for him they hopefully wouldn’t be able to identify him and continued south. He could catch up with the bandits and have his lord somewhere safe within a few weeks.

* * *

“Look, there they are.” Isshin would never admit to being nervous every time Genichiro rode out to battle. He knew well that skill could only take you so far, and then you were relying on luck to return, but Genichiro didn’t think like that and he did not want his chosen heir believing Isshin doubted his skills. Dogen, leaning on a cane, walked forward to the railing carefully. His health had never recovered after the dragonrot outbreak almost a decade ago; he had finally been persuaded to call Emma back from Hirata and let her take over the year before as his health continued its gentle decline. He frowned, looking over the battle party making their way through the outskirts.

“Why did they bring the Hirata samurai back? Genichiro said he was going to ask Tatsuo for them, not bring them here.” Isshin had stopped paying attention once he saw his grandson was riding near the front, but his head snapped back around as he looked back. There were Hirata samurai there, many of them; it looked like most of the younger samurai from the estates. The knot in his stomach came back with a vengeance; now that he was looking again, Genichiro was carrying someone. Someone small.

“Something’s wrong.” Isshin turned and left, almost running down the staircases, dodging servants, trying to turn off the part of his brain insisting something had happened to the only blood relatives he had left.

Genichiro was carefully dismounting as a servant took his horse; Isshin recognized his expression as he ran forward, keeping his face blank rather than let his emotions show. He was still holding a small body, but Kuro was moving, was alive; face tear streaked and red, but alive. And the fact that it was Genichiro carrying him, not one of his parents, told Isshin all he needed to know. 

Both of them were caught up in Isshin’s hug. Kuro was clinging to him immediately, not saying anything but it felt like he was crying still. Genichiro, usually reserved, only hesitated a moment before hugging back. Somewhere far away Isshin heard Gyoubu taking over, directing people, as the remains of the small family mourned.

The elder Hirata’s bodies had not been definitively found due to the fires throughout the estates, and the war party had buried the bodies in front of the entrance hall, but a funeral was held anyway, for Tatsuo and Asami and for the others who had died at Hirata. At Isshin’s insistence Kuro had been given a room in the castle, at a rough halfway point between his and Genichiro’s rooms; while Genichiro had been the first to go back to normal duties, he was making sure to spend time with his cousin. Isshin had very early on as the Lord of Ashina decided to delegate most of the tasks he disliked including many things that were necessary but tedious and so spent more time with Kuro. 

So Isshin was the one to find Kuro, two weeks after Genichiro had brought him to Ashina, packing what little he had left into a makeshift pack. He jumped guiltily when Isshin saw him, but didn’t try to hide what he had been doing.

“Kuro, you’re acting like you’re going to leave.” 

“I…” He looked away, then back at Isshin. “The bandits… everyone that died at Hirata died because they came after me. I do not want that to happen again.” 

“It won’t happen again Kuro, not here. Why do you think they attacked because of you? They may have just been opportunistic.”

“The Dragon’s Heritage. The older lady was talking about it.” He’d gone over what he remembered with Isshin and Genichiro both; after the Owl left and the older shinobi showed up his memories were fuzzy. Genichiro himself had walked in quietly, probably looking for Isshin, but was frowning at the pack. “That’s why she was there. I can give it to someone, and she wanted it, but I have to give it and she was trying to trick me.”

“No one is going to force you to do that here, Kuro, and we’re not going to be attacked. Stay here? Please? I do not want my great-nephew away and alone.”

“But-”

“Even if we have to call out most of the army to repel an attack we can defend the castle. It’s not easy to break through our defenses, not with how many soldiers we have.” Genichiro chose to cut in. “Not with how the castle is built. Nothing can happen here.”

“Okay.” Isshin steered the topic towards Kuro’s lessons, and plans to find tutors here in Ashina for him, and Kuro nodded along until he left to deal with something. Genichiro had remained, and was apparently waiting until Isshin left to turn back to Kuro, biting his lip uncertainly.

“I’m… not sure if you want this, Kuro, but…” He had a sword with him, Kuro had noticed, but he usually did. But Genichiro was tall and tended to use something that pushed the limits of what was considered a katana; this was a shorter blade.

This was Kusabimaru, which had been Wolf’s sword, and Kuro felt his heart drop when he saw it. A reminder that he had failed the man who tried to protect him.

“I- sorry, Kuro, I can-” 

“Thank you, Genichiro, I will take it. Thank you for retrieving it.” He wasn’t sure when Genichiro had grabbed it, but it was all he had left from the man who had saved him, and Kuro intended to keep it. Genichiro was watching him warily, but accepted that he would be alright and left. Kuro put it down next to the window and settled next to it, staring out at the courtyard.

A few days later, Kuro was staring out the window in his room when Isshin came to visit. There wasn’t a full pack stashed somewhere that Isshin could see, but it took a minute before he turned to greet his great uncle. There was a katana, sheathed, on the ground next to him. Like he had many times over the past few weeks, Isshin settled nearby, staying silent; Kuro abandoned his window to sit closer. They were quiet for several minutes before Kuro spoke up.

“Takeru’s page said I could give the heritage to someone if I chose to, but it didn’t work.” Isshin nodded, but let Kuro talk. “Fa- there was a shinobi hired, to guard me along with Inosuke, a few months… a few months before. When Inosuke got injured, he ran, but my shinobi came from nowhere and saved me, and died for it. I couldn’t do anything. It didn’t work.”

“Hmm.” The day after Kuro came to Ashina Genichiro had given Isshin a full report on what had happened, including the dead shinobi with most of the roof on top of him. Isshin knew only a little more about the Heritage than the page had; Takeru, for all he’d lived in Ashina for the better part of a decade, had never been very talkative with anyone except Tomoe. But, a little more was still more, and he knew that all the words Takeru never said were written down somewhere in the castle. “It may not have worked, Kuro. But, I believe Takeru mentioned giving his samurai Tomoe his Heritage in a similar situation, and xe came back to life a few days later. It may only be false hope, but it may have worked.” The blaze of hope on Kuro’s face hurt, but Isshin couldn’t hold that knowledge back, even knowing Kuro may have gotten to his shinobi too late. 

“It might have worked? Maybe he’s out there, I should-”

“Kuro, please, stay here. If he’s out there he will make his way to Ashina himself, and putting yourself in danger looking as he looks for you will not help.” Kuro bit his lip, but nodded. “But while you are here, Takeru left all of his writing in this castle. Some of it may have been moved into storage but we can find it. And he wrote a lot about the Dragon’s Heritage.”

“Hmm.” Kuro was looking out the window again, more thoughtfully. Isshin anticipated his next question. 

“I’ll have someone bring his journals to you, Kuro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All it took was being stabbed through the chest and dying and bam, character development gone. 
> 
> Also because it's not clear Wolf is a few months ahead of Kuro, timeline wise right now, that'll catch up eventually. As far as I care it's not that far between Hirata and Ashina.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf... is still bandit hunting because following a three month old trail is difficult.
> 
> Kuro meanwhile is reading, like he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More headcanons here, but it's what I decided on to make things make sense. 
> 
> Tomoe is still non-binary as far as I'm concerned.

The worst of the winter was over now, and Wolf was still bandit hunting. Too many people had been on this trail since they came through, even before the snow. He had been forced to stop in several villages and ask; but now that the snow was melting he had also started to sell the winter clothing. It would just weigh him down, and buying food would be faster than stopping to hunt until he could reliably scavenge for it again. At least it was vaguely warm enough he had been able to get the blood off his clothing and armor, but that had shown something new; a white patch covering easily a quarter of his head, almost touching his right eye. He had no explanation for it, no memory resurfacing, nothing; so he decided to ignore it like the scar on his chest now hidden by hastily repaired armor and carefully patching his old kimono. It hadn’t changed him too much; Kuro should still recognize him once he caught up to the bandits.

They had appeared to veer further inland once they were out of the pass; Wolf caught himself wondering why they had traveled from so far away to attack Hirata, but if rumors had spread about Kuro probably a lord down here had wanted him. It didn’t matter, anyway; Wolf had to find him. 

Smoke; hopefully another village, maybe a village that knew about the bandits this time. He’d covered a wide sweeping area, asking in each village in a huge arc around the pass. None of the others had held any information. 

There was a merchant, bored, carving something on a tree branch off the main road. He looked up hopefully as Wolf approached. He meager stall held little of interest for Wolf, but he still offered a few sen for more thread to help upkeep his old kimono and scarf and possibly repair tears in his hakama before quietly saying “I was also hoping for information. Bandits, a small group, came through the pass several months ago.” He was rewarded, finally, by the man’s scowl.

“They ran through here right before winter, ripped apart a few other merchant’s stalls and ran off with their stock before anyone could do anything. A couple of them had armor, not unusual, but it wasn’t a crest I’m familiar with. A four petaled flower.” Wolf handed the man a few coins then asked, “Which way did they run?”

“West, into the forest. We sent a few men, but they ran through and kept running like the cowards they are.” Wolf nodded thanks and left, heading west, finally back on the trail of his master.  _ I will bring him back at any cost _ .

Kuro looked up from this small book when Lady Emma knocked. He had met her before, at Hirata, when he was younger and she was practicing being a doctor in charge. She had left when Dogen’s health had finally gotten bad enough he had decided she needed to take over in Ashina.

“Lord Kuro, you’ve been here three months and you haven’t left the castle. Would you like to see the outskirts?” The outskirts held no actual allure for Kuro, but he was quiet, and usually now he was reading the books the servants had so far found, and people assumed he wasn’t listening due to that, so he knew Dogen’s gently declining health had suddenly accelerated its drop. Dogen had adopted Emma when she was young; she needed the distraction. Kuro nodded and put the book aside to follow her out. 

They passed a handful of soldiers patrolling on their way out of the castle; a couple of friendly nods, but overall they were ignored. 

But not far outside the castle Kuro saw the body. It was in small stable, not that far from the gate, and it was only chance that he glanced over that way as Emma was talking about the handful of lesser samurai families who usually lived out here. He would have said a small prayer and looked away, if not for the crest. 

The body wore the Hirata crest prominently, and Kuro could not look away; he realized after a moment this had been one of the older servants, not someone he saw every day but often enough. 

Emma noticed him walking towards the stables and followed. He spoke before she could ask.

“This man… was from Hirata. I must pay my respects.”

“Lord Kuro…”

“Lady Emma. Are there other Hirata survivors?”

“There… are very few of us left.”

“I see. Apologies.” Now he knelt in prayer, addressing the corpse, before turning back to Emma. “There’s no end to those who seek the Dragon’s Heritage. This was their fate, because of those that pursued me. I didn’t mean to involve them.” How many other people had been at Hirata and been killed? How many servants, how many soldiers, retainers, samurai? He was supposed to be loyal to them, and he’d barely thought of the other people killed because of him. He’d been focusing on Wolf, not the people who had been loyal to him and his family for far longer.

He rose again after a minute, intending to ask Emma if they could return to the castle, and saw an Ashina servant running towards them. Running towards Emma, specifically, and he tried to keep his voice quiet but Kuro heard him tell her she was needed in the castle immediately. 

He nodded when she turned and followed silently as they ran back, but Kuro returned to his room as Emma went to her operatory. He couldn’t focus on reading; two books were picked up and abandoned in short succession and instead he began pacing.

There was a quiet knock maybe half an hour later. When Kuro opened it, it was Isshin, wearing the same expression he had when Kuro had arrived in Ashina.

“Dogen?” That was the only person that made sense, here. Isshin nodded. Kuro moved out of the way and invited him inside, then sat next to him quietly like they had for the past few months.

Genichiro came to visit two days after Dogen passed. Like Isshin had, he sat in silence with Kuro for a while, but something was different. Kuro couldn’t tell exactly what, and chose not to address it. Finally Genichiro sighed, and started speaking when Kuro turned to him.

“The Interior Ministry has started sending raids into Ashina. Nothing serious yet, but if they can get this deep into the country they will start sending larger forces soon.” He had been looking at the wall, but now focused on Kuro. “If these attacks keep ramping up… Kuro, I might ask you to move to the Moon-view Tower in the reservoir. It hasn’t been used for a number of years, but there’s a quick escape route out of it, just in case.”

“If you think that’s necessary, Lord Genichiro.”

“I can hope it won’t be.” And now, he left. Without him looming, Kuro was able to gather his thoughts and realize Genichiro seemed angry for some reason- but something was probably going on with one of the retainers, or the peasants, or it was focused at the Ministry. Genichiro had always tried to hide that he was more emotional than Isshin, who didn’t let little things ruffle his calm.

Kuro looked back at the slim journal in Takeru’s neat hand that he had been reading before Genichiro came by. It wasn’t, by itself, focused on the Heritage; it read like he had merely written whatever was on his mind he felt he couldn’t discuss. Some of it went over Kuro’s head, and it sounded like he had known a few shinobi in the area- Kingfisher sounded like a shinobi name- but he did write about his experiences with the Dragon’s Blood. 

Kuro frowned; he had read through this book fairly quickly, but something was still bothering him. It was like a page was missing part way through; Takeru was talking about something with the heritage and then suddenly he was writing about trying to find a way through a village called Mibu. 

A missing page was annoying but he couldn’t do anything about it. He’d asked Lord Isshin about Takeru’s page, hoping the man might have more information, but he had been one of the few casualties from the battle that Genichiro had requested Hirata’s samurai for. Kuro reached for a different book, instead; not one by Takeru, but a record of Ashina before it had been taken over. One of the pages looked loose, and still thinking about the missing page, Kuro opened to that spot.

The page was loose. The neat handwriting did not match the small, exact letters on the larger book. It looked like Takeru’s. Kuro looked at the page a moment, then found the spot where a page was missing, not daring to think in case that made this fragile sheet of paper disappear. The abandoned sentence continued on this sheet, carelessly pulled from the journal and used as a bookmark. Kuro carefully read the new page. The cut off part had been Takeru talking about how he couldn’t bleed, and apparently had asked Tomoe, his samurai, to do something. The new page showed that he had tested the limits of his power, Tomoe trying to stab or shoot him several times to no effect. Then…

Takeru, in this journal at least, wrote all over the place. He was writing about meeting Tomoe, now. 

And how he had shared the Heritage with Tomoe. This was what Kuro was hoping for; he poured over the short account. Tomoe had been badly injured protecting Takeru before xe was officially guarding him, and had been close to death with Takeru gave xem the heritage. He got off topic here, something about corruption and rot and death that Kuro didn’t understand, before returning to his topic.

Takeru had been exhausted for a moment, and Tomoe had collapsed and died. 

And it had taken a week before Tomoe woke up, confused, and not remembering what had happened that led to xem waking up in Takeru’s spare room. 

Kuro closed his eyes, trying to remember; had he really felt the fatigue Takeru mentioned, trying desperately to stop Wolf from dying, or was his brain conspiring to fool him for false hope? He wasn’t sure anymore, but decided to act as though it had worked. He wasn’t sure he could handle the alternative again. He opened his eyes and focused on the paper again. What was this next bit?

“I believe Tomoe collapsed for a week due to the blood loss. Xe had only very recently been stabbed in the gut; I would hazard that had I been a few minutes later, Tomoe may have been functionally dead for a longer period of time.” How long had Wolf been bleeding in the temple before Kuro found him? If Tomoe had been injured and very soon after given the heritage but was dead for a week, how long was Wolf dead for, before he got back up, not remembering what had happened?

What would Wolf, who hadn’t met the Ashina, who hadn’t been at Hirata long enough to know that they would send samurai to help occasionally, think when he woke up in an abandoned temple? He might have gone back to wherever Owl was- Kuro realized suddenly he wasn’t sure if Owl was alive or not, if Wolf had come back to save him. He may have thought bandits took Kuro and gone looking for them, following a weeks or months old trail. Maybe- here was an option Kuro did not want to think about- he had woken up and considered his vow fulfilled, having died for his lord, and was working for a different lord as their shinobi now. 

Whatever had happened. Wolf had probably-hopefully-lived. It was a hope riding on a shaky, stressful recollection of the worst night of his life, but it was all Kuro had. He looked outside; probably it was too late to call on Isshin today, to tell him what Kuro had found. Tomorrow he could.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuro has found what he was looking for, and so has Wolf

Kuro walked quietly towards Isshin’s rooms. And because he walked quietly, he heard Lady Emma was already present, talking with Isshin. 

“...and I can’t find any of it. Dogen stopped experimenting with the water after that one red-eyes in the outskirts, but he didn’t get rid of his stock in case someone found it and used it. But the sediment is all gone, too. Doujon disappeared, but he’s the kind to take the notes, not pick a lock and take jars of water.”

“Then someone has all of the Rejuvenating Water that was in the castle, and we have no way to get more until Kuro is old enough to understand how to find more.” A sigh that ended in a cough, which was alarming; Kuro had never known Isshin to get sick, but had only been around his great uncle for a few weeks every year before this. “Maybe this is for the best.” 

“I don’t like that you still have that cough, Lord Isshin.” It was not comforting that Emma agreed with him. “It’s been a month, that should have cleared up. Let me go-”

“I will be fine, Emma! It’s just a cough. I don’t know who’s worse between you and-” he stopped suddenly rather than finish the sentence, and there was silence for a moment.

“...If you don’t drink the cough medicine I have you find I’m worse than Dogen.”

“Alright, Emma, I’ll drink the slime you make up.” Kuro realized he was going to be caught eavesdropping in about ten seconds and walked a little louder to the door and knocked, announcing his presence and then thanking Emma as she let him inside at Isshin’s greeting. 

“Kuro, good to see you. How goes the reading?” Isshin didn’t look sick, just old. He had a few strands of hair that hadn’t turned white yet, holding the line against that sign of age, but they were already fewer than when Kuro had been brought here. His face had been wrinkled longer than Kuro could remember.

“I found something in one of Takeru’s journals. Tomoe was injured when he gave xem the Dragon’s Heritage, and he wrote that xe collapsed dead for a week. Wolf was in worse shape then Tomoe was, so I think-”

“You think you were successful and your shinobi is alive somewhere?”

“Yes. I have a couple of ideas where he could have gone and-”

“Kuro, I still do not want you to leave Ashina. If he is coming back, this is where he will end up eventually. And with the Interior Ministry starting to sniff around again, wandering around is not safe.”

“As you wish, Lord Isshin. Lord Genichiro mentioned about the Ministry; he thinks if they continue he’ll have me move from the castle to the Moon-view Tower.”

“A good choice, though I’ll have to have someone fix the hole in the wall. Of course, there is an escape route out of the reservoir. Beneath the bridge, a tunnel leads outside the castle grounds.”

“Thank you for telling me, Lord Isshin.”

Now, what was this part that Takeru had written? He had ignored it, excited that Wolf may still be alive, but corruption sounded worrying. 

This journal did not go enough in depth. Which one did? Kuro spent three days speed reading everything he could find with Takeru’s neat handwriting until he found something in a journal that, so far, was mostly devoted to poetry he did not understand. Near the end, he devoted a few pages to the heritage.

“I worry about Tomoe being so reckless; I fear that as xe dies and dies xe will grow used to it, and then ignore it, and then become closer to becoming a demon. It can be a corrupting influence, I fear.” Kuro read the sentence aloud with a worried frown. Takeru’s page hadn’t said anything about drawbacks to giving the heritage, but he probably hadn’t known. 

Wolf was good at his job, right? He wouldn’t die, over and over and over, right? Kuro glanced at Kusabimaru, frown deepening. No sword, according to Takeru part of his memories might be gone, and… did he know where Ashina was? 

There was nothing Kuro could do right now except continue to look for more information. Isshin had forbidden him to leave, and all of the books were here. He would have to stay here and read and worry.

As the weeks went on Kuro kept reading, rarely leaving his room; he had needed to start his own notebook to keep Takeru’s observations in one place, instead of trying to remember which books had what in them. He was glad for the reason to stay, though he didn’t want to admit it; Genichiro had started stomping more when walking in the hallways. He had barely even seen Genichiro since Dogen’s funeral, but what glimpses and sentence fragments he saw just showed his cousin getting angrier, snapping at people for things he would have ignored just a few months ago, and several of the high ranking retainers beginning to follow suit. 

Isshin was being more short-tempered as well, but mostly with the people who were already acting angry. He was visiting Kuro more, but Kuro could tell he was still coughing and trying to hide it. He had been called away from visiting with Kuro several times due to “situations” happening in the outskirts, which Kuro took to mean that there were more attacks from the Interior Ministry. He just had to stay in here and research, he told himself. Wolf would be coming, soon, and until then he would stay in his room where it was safe.

He had to be getting closer. This was the clearest the trail had been since he left Hirata. But that meant Wolf had to be a lot more cautious, too; if the bandits startled again he’d be chasing them through this godsforsaken, pathless forest like last month, when he’d been almost ready and some bumbling samurai had set them all to flight. 

He was trying not to think that he hadn’t seen evidence of them carrying a captive- trying not to reflect that surely, someone would have mentioned they had a child with them- and failing, mostly. They must have hidden him somewhere, or delivered him to their lord before fleeing down here. It didn’t matter, anyway. He just needed one, and he would be able to get Kuro out of their camp or go to the castle they had taken him to.

And here the one was, limping away from the main camp Wolf hadn’t found a good way to get close to yet, not looking up. He wasn’t wearing scavenged armor like a few of the ones Wolf had seen, which was good. It was easier to threaten an unarmored man. He did have a sword, though, which Wolf had decided was his now. It would do as a replacement, since he had not taken the time to find a replacement for Kusabiamru.

The bandit looked around carefully and missed Wolf drop from his tree branch and creep closer. Wolf checked the position of the man’s poorly maintained katana, then reached around him suddenly and pulled the sword from its sheath and held it to the man’s throat. 

“Alert anyone and die. I don’t need you alive, you were just convenient.” The man was holding very, very still, but made an affirming noise.

“You were part of a force attacking the Hirata Estates before winter.” Another affirming noise, then he actually spoke. 

“‘Get the kid and get out’ we were told, no one said some shadow would go through and take out half the force in two hours. No one knows where the lord that wanted us to attack it is, either, Lord Juzuo knew and he said it was the ministry but they denied it, bastards, and we thought it was that shinobi that was there, but you can’t find a shinobi when you look-”

“Where is Lord Kuro.” Wolf kept his voice and, more importantly, the sword, steady, but now he felt sick. They didn’t have him?

“I don’t know, the Ashina probably took him. They chased us out right after we found Juzou dead. That must have been where their samurai all went-” The bandit kept talking as Wolf’s mind raced. Ashina had taken their samurai? It would explain why they had been overrun by the bandits. 

Had he been there? What happened that he woke up in the ruined temple several months later with the estates abandoned? He didn’t remember the bandits attacking, he didn’t remember Ashina coming to the estate, his memories seemed to end with- Owl. Owl had come. Owl had been at the estates, hadn’t he? And he was dead. Wolf couldn’t picture how he knew that, beyond that he knew. 

Owl must have sent him on an errand, and the bandits attacked while he was gone. No memory reappeared at this thought, but it was all that made sense. He focused back on the rambling bandit, now shaking a little and talking quietly and faster, coming to terms with the fact that he probably wouldn’t live to walk back into camp.

Wolf needed to kill him. He knew that. This man had helped sack Hirata, was part of the reason Wolf had failed his master. He needed to take revenge, as the Iron Code stated. If he didn’t want to leave immediately to get Kuro he should kill all of them like the code said. Just leaving this bandit alive could cause more issues. He did not need the remainder of this group attacking him as he left; it was better if they didn’t know he was here til well after he was gone.

But. This was not the sword he had been given at the estates, but he remembered what Lord Hirata had said, after he had sworn fealty to Kuro. He was a shinobi, and he needed to kill this man. Owl would have been yelling at him now, he was sure, lecturing him on the Iron Code and how this bandit needed to die. But he should not, could not forget mercy. The bandit was unarmed now, had stopped talking and was just shaking. Wolf decided. 

The bandit went flying into the bushes, Wolf holding the sheath he’d pulled from the man’s obi, and Wolf took off, but no yelling followed him. Hopefully it was from gratefulness at not being killed and not because he’d thrown the man headfirst into a tree.

Ashina, then? Wolf had never been, he just knew it was north and east from Hirata. But if their samurai had come through and taken Kuro with them, that was where he needed to go. His annoyance, his anxiety at spending months on this ultimately useless errand was suppressed with the knowledge that, if nothing else, Lord Kuro had been safe among his relatives while Wolf was on this useless quest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wolf did get to keep a little character development. He doesn't remember how he got it but he kept it.
> 
> Next week is the end of the fic, thank you for sticking with me so far!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuro and Genichiro have a discussion, and Wolf is finally heading to Ashina.

Kuro startled out of his reading by the sound of stomping feet and turned towards his door. The sound went by without stopping, but he knew it was Genichiro; his cousin had been getting angrier, it seemed, with every week that went by. It was an open secret now that Isshin was sick and nothing Emma could do was healing him, just slowing the progression of the illness; retainers who didn’t realize Kuro was usually in this room would have discussions right outside his door about the likelihood of Isshin stepping down from leading the country and Genichiro taking over. 

Genichiro had already been handling most of the paperwork, leading what there was of the Ashina’s military, and making most of the decisions for years; Isshin had been a figurehead for most of Kuro’s memories, but an important one. The Ministry was scared of him and his fighting prowess. Kuro had even gotten to watch him fight once, a careful duel with a much younger samurai home at Hirata, and Isshin had won easily without once being in danger of injury. 

The footsteps again, coming to his door. Kuro had barely seen Genichiro since Dogen died. Apparently there had been more attacks, more raids by the Interior Ministry recently and he had been busy. There was a knock.

“Yes, Lord Genichiro?” 

“Divine Heir.” Kuro felt a chill; he vaguely remembered the old lady at the estates calling him that. While Takeru had mentioned it, and claimed the title, Kuro had not. Even with his research Kuro felt like he knew barely anyhing about the Heritage and wasn’t comfortable claiming it. Genichiro apparently felt differently. “The raids are getting worse. We are losing more soldiers now, and some of our generals. You have the Dragon’s Blood. If you accept me, perhaps several of the other generals-” 

“I tried, Lord Genichiro, and it-” Genichiro didn’t know it had taken, that Wolf had hopefully lived; Kuro suddenly had the realization that Genichiro probably shouldn’t know.

“You told me. You got to him too late, Kuro, but I am not about to die right now. We cannot let what happened at Hirata happen here.” And with that Kuro felt himself get angry. He rarely did; it took a lot.  _ You got to him too late _ . He had spent practically the entire trip to Ashina crying on his shoulder, he had been crying again when he told the Ashina about losing Wolf on top of the rest of the raid, and now Genichiro was going to use that against him.  _ You got to him too late _ .

“You told me it couldn’t happen here.” With how angry he was it was dangerous to provoke him like this, Kuro knew, but did not care as much as he should have. It had been what, nine months? Since he had come to Ashina and been reassured that another massacre would not happen. Genichiro did not look away, but Kuro saw his jaw tighten. “Can Ashina not be defended by your forces?”

“...Come with me.” Not a tone that allowed dissent, and neither was his grip on Kuro’s shoulder. 

“We managed to drive them back once. But the Interior Ministry’s army is far too powerful.” This was in the outskirts, barely; it was just outside the castle gate. Genichiro had finally relaxed his grip, but this was the first thing he had said since they left Kuro’s room. Kuro could barely drag his eyes away from the pile of soldiers. Every one was in Ashina colors.

“And that is why… you wish to use the power of my blood? It doesn’t matter how much power you obtain. You’ll keep on fighting until you’re a monster, incapable of feeling pain or fear… I … do not wish to corrupt the lives of men…” Even if he could give the heritage, even if it drove the Ministry back a few more times, even if he could give the heritage to Genichiro and not watch his cousin become more of a monster, they would learn and come back for him, and Ashina would end how Hirata had.

“Look at this mountain of bodies. Ashina cannot be defended by normal means. Not anymore.” There was some strange inflection in that last sentence that took Kuro a moment to understand before he gave a small gasp at the realization. The missing sediment Emma was concerned about. Whoever Doujon was, he had not taken it. Genichiro had. And whatever else it did, wherever it was from, it must have been why he was so angry all of a sudden. Emma had called it a corrupting influence, and Genichiro had taken it.

“I could… never be as strong as you, Lord Genichiro. I do not yet know… what I should do…”  _ Had _ he corrupted Wolf similarly by giving him the heritage? He thought it worked, hoped that it worked, but as the weeks passed and Wolf did not appear his small hope sputtered. Was Wolf like this, now, angry all the time?

“It has been a long time since... that happened. Wait all you like, it will do you no good.” Silence, for a minute, then Genichiro put his hand back on Kuro’s shoulder and began walking around the bodies again, but not back towards the castle. “You will be in the Moon-view Tower until you agree. Or until the Ministry overruns us all.”

Wolf did not have to stop and hunt this trip through the pass; there was enough left growing along the trails he barely had to slow down. No snow helped as well, and he had crossed back through the pass in a fraction of the time it took to transverse it the first time.    


This was one of the smaller villages he had passed through on his useless quest, a few days on the Ashina side of the pass. Wolf debated stopping here to ask about the road to Ashina proper, but decided against it. It was the center of power for this area; it wouldn’t be hard to find. 

He was lost. Again. 

The center of power in this country was apparently as easy to find as old sen in the bottom of a muddy pond. Two weeks and Wolf had backtracked enough he hadn’t made any real progress. Roads were destroyed- were the Ashina really not upkeeping the roads they needed for traders?- and multiple villages were empty. There were soldiers around, small groups travelling around like he was, but they did not look familiar with the area and Wolf decided they were to be avoided. 

Worse, the summer, not very strong this far into the mountains, was dying. The nights already were too cold for comfort; soon enough he would have to steal more cold weather clothing after selling what he had taken to get through the pass almost a year ago, now. He did have most of the money left, but as easy forage became harder to find it would be needed to buy food.

After another two fruitless weeks of trying to follow the roads Wolf gave up. Owl had taught him basics about how a castle was run; lots of farmers and merchants and craftsmen nearby let the castle exist. That meant farm land, and the fields used to grow rice were easy to find. He just had to get up high and look for clear spaces, buildings, maybe even the castle itself if he was lucky. Whoever had taken Kusabimaru had not taken his grappling hook; even with how mountainous this country was he could get up high and look.

That looked like a village, that had some more fields around it. Following the curve of the mountain this way would let him see more, but he would have to descend quite a ways to get to that mountain, and it looked like the string of villages hopefully leading into the heart of the country went that way. It might be warmer further down, too. Wolf nodded and began making his way down into a valley.

This was… better, in a weird way. Kuro only saw the servant who brought meals and occasionally Emma or Lord Isshin. He only had to see them; there was a bar that could lock his door, here in the Moon-view Tower, and he hadn’t unlocked it for Genichiro or the retainers who had come to talk to him. And they had stopped after the first week, grasping that he would not share the Dragon’s Blood. 

Several servants apparently under Isshin’s orders had come the second week bearing loads of books; they covered the staircase and most of the upper floor in a rough order as Kuro read through them, carefully shelving them only once he was sure they did not hold information he wanted. Most of these did not have information on the Heritage and were shelved, but he carefully combed through them, anyway. One of them had brought the spare clothing he had, the single kimono rescued from the estates and an amount of Genichiro’s old things that had been taken in to fit. He had also brought Kusabimaru, which Kuro kept near him while he read.

Emma was always welcome when she managed to visit; she seemed to feel guilty about what Genichiro had done. Isshin…

Isshin wanted what was best for him, probably, but had officially stepped down, apparently the day Genichiro had asked for the Heritage. It had been a shock, the first time he had come to visit Kuro after he’d been moved here; he had lost a lot of weight just in the past few weeks, so that now he was unhealthily skinny, and the few strands of his hair that had been black were as white as everything else now. He was still in good spirits, still acted like he always had, but Kuro could see he was getting tired by a few hours into their visit and feigned exhaustion himself to give his great uncle a reason to leave, then watched worriedly as he made his way back to the castle proper, unsubtly tailed by one of Emma’s apprentices.

Kuro knew he was distracting himself from the worry- Wolf was hopefully out there somewhere, all he could do was cling to the hope that he had given him the Heritage correctly, that it had worked, that Wolf was not being corrupted by it like Takeru had worried about Tomoe, and now he just had to wait. And now he could wait here, in a prison that locked out whoever he wanted, with more safety than he had felt in months. Now, he would follow Isshin’s advice and stay put; Wolf would come looking for him here, and then they could leave Ashina. That probably was not Isshin’s intention, but it was Kuro’s plan. Away from Ashina and Genichiro and the Ministry, somewhere where no one wanted to use him. All he could do now was read, look for information, and hope Wolf was out there somewhere, coming for him.

  
  


This was it. Finally. This had to be. A castle surrounded by deep valleys, most of the way in front cleared and populated by buildings. Going through the front was the smart plan, but Wolf had never met the Ashina and did not know if they would believe him claiming the position of Kuro’s shinobi. Kuro would recognize him, surely; but that depended on actually having audience with Kuro. 

Wolf surveyed the castle from his spot across the valley. This was not the main castle itself, which was visible behind the rundown tower actually in front of him; this was an outlying set of structures. The valley had been filled in where a part of it broke off and ran into this area, but there was a large bridge to the right he could use to get up and to the castle proper. There may have been a few soldiers patrolling, but he couldn’t tell from here. It was time to cross the valley.

Wolf planned his approach to the castle itself as he began carefully descending. Kuro must have been in the main keep, where he would be safe; these were his relatives, it only made sense. He would have to find a way into the main keep and find Kuro without alerting anyone who might stop him. Then he could properly alert the Ashina that he had finally made it and resume his duties. He sighted on a rock across the gap, only a few tens of feet above the treeline, and swung over easily, but this rock wanted to hold onto his grappling hook. He frowned, thoughts derailed, as he carefully pried it free. 

Wolf looked up; it wouldn’t be difficult to climb normally the rest of the way, but with the light already beginning to fade he would rather hurry. He caught onto another rock, pulled himself up to it, knelt again to try and loosen the grip the rock had-

-and froze, hearing something. A big something, brushing against the rock. Scales?

A snake. The biggest snake he had ever seen. Each eye appeared the size of his head, easily, even from how far down it was. He resumed trying to free the grappling hook, more quietly now, not breaking his visual on the snake. 

It heard something, or felt vibration or whatever something that big must have done, because it turned its head towards him. Wolf froze again, hoping it would look away, it was moving away but still staring at him,  _ oh it was preparing to strike _ -

And Wolf jumped to a ledge, clinging to the side as the snake shook itself after throwing itself headfirst into the rock walls of this valley, watching as it reoriented itself and looked for him while he tried to find a way out. The only way was further up, Wolf realized, watching the snake rear back again, but this time much closer to his wall. 

When it struck the snake jerked back in pain; the sword was hastily embedded right where it would cut its nose open and Wolf had jumped the strike and held onto the head for just long enough to jump from the writhing snake to a ledge much further up the cliff face. Its head disappeared again as Wolf ran, conscious that he was now down both his grappling hook and the stolen sword, towards another set of ledges that should let him up to the bridge he saw.

He hadn’t expected some snake out of nightmares to live in this valley; it shook him just enough to not check for soldiers as he pulled himself up the final ledge and onto what was definitely Ashina territory. He got lucky, though; no one nearby, but he could hear them. Wolf breathed carefully, scanning the area, making note of the soldiers he could see-

-and one of them turned, and shouted, and drew his sword as Wolf realized the sun had set fully and now his eyes were giving him away. He hadn’t been worried or thinking about that for nearly a year; he had forgotten. 

There had to be a way out, somewhere he could hide for a day so he could get around them, but no, the only way out here was back into the valley with the snake.

And unfortunately the soldiers running up saw an unknown shinobi invading Ashina.

Several soldiers were running towards him. Wolf had half a second to realize that he was not going to see Kuro if they grabbed him; he was going into a prison and no one would be listening to his reasons. He dodged a swing, kicked one of them in the knee and shoved him to the ground, but he had no sword and hadn’t been fighting for over a year, just travelling and the soldiers had the advantage. One of them grabbed him roughly and threw him to the ground, then immediately kicked his stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him through his armor, though the pained yelp told him they paid for it. Something that sounded angry he didn’t catch, and one of the soldiers dragged him back to his feet, arm back, hand balled into a fist- caught, by a taller man. A samurai from the armor, not one of these low ranking soldiers. 

“You’re a shinobi. Why are you here, sneaking into the reservoir?” Maybe he still had a chance to meet with Kuro, if the samurai was willing to listen, but this was his only shot.

“I am in service to the Hirata family-”

“The Hirata line is finished. Your master is dead.” Wait. No. Kuro couldn’t be dead, he hadn’t been chasing bandits for a year while his lord was in a grave. Something… Kuro couldn’t be killed, he couldn’t be injured, could he? Or was that just Wolf, Wolf who couldn’t recall enough of his time at Hirata to remember, trying to make excuses? Far away he heard the samurai give some orders, knew on some level he was being dragged somewhere, felt the impact when they dropped him in some pit, but he couldn’t process it. He had failed.  _ He  _ had  _ failed _ . He had failed Kuro, and failed Owl. Kuro was dead. 

He heard them walk away, and a few hours later heard the shift change with the sun, then heard it change again as he stared at the ground unmoving, and heard footsteps coming towards this pit-

-and there was a letter, dropped down in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me through this! I have... shorter things planned, now.

**Author's Note:**

> Probably posting the rest of the chapters friday/saturday/sundayish. I didn't want to wait til Sunday morning for this and I'm fleeing the heatwave this weekend but also decent internet, so here's this now.


End file.
